Within the past week, we have read Jiwani and Young’s article, “Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse” and watched the “Through a Blue Lens” documentary made my the Vancouver Police Department. A large focus in both is the conditions of Vancouver’s downtown east side. In the documentary, there is overall theme of teaching the bad that drugs can do to one’s life and body. The whole film focuses of close ups of many of the drug-dependent people that live downtown; such shots include scars, cuts and even seeing themselves injecting the drugs, followed by their actions after taking these substances and the loss of control for their actions that they experience. It is a very moving form of teaching that helps to prevent kids from getting into drugs, because of its scare factor, which essentially is the documentary’s purpose. We also see how many of these people that are now drug-dependent and living on the streets in the downtown east side had positive futures ahead of them. An example was a man named randy, who had been on the streets for around 10 years at the time of the documentary, who was a successful hockey player who had potential to one day play in the NHL, but instead he had gotten into hard drugs and his life turned around.

From this, we can better understand Jiwani and Young’s article about many of the women who lived in the downtown eastside, drug-dependent sex workers, that went missing and where killed. By watching the documentary, one can understand that these women did have more than just their lives on the streets before them. Throughout the article, many of these women are referred to as forgotten, not wanted, or abandoned and both Jiwani and Young try to tell a different story that they where more than just another woman, they are mothers, sisters, daughters, and even wives. It was until after hundreds of women went missing that they had found two men guilty of the majority of the deaths.

After spending some time learning, reflecting, and discovering the ways of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) back in  september, it was left in the back of our minds where many of us still had burning questions about it. Now after visiting the exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology on February 11th, I have seen another side of the TRC.

Because of the history around residential schools, there is a large amount of pain and suffering that many aboriginal people faced and still currently do face to this day. This includes experiences of assault, sexual assault, mental abuse, and even trauma from the events that the aboriginal people experienced. In september, we focused on the suffering that many of the aboriginal people faced. Many of us visited the “Witnessing” exhibit at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery back in september where there was a focus on the pain and suffering felt by the aboriginal people.

I found it to be the opposite at the “Speaking to Memory: Images and Voices from the St. Michael’s Residential School” exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology. For me personally, I found this exhibit to contain more of a positive vibe that reflected the positive experiences the students had while they spend their years at the St. Michael’s residential school. Although some of the pieces in this exhibit were not positive, others were including the series of photos in Beverly Brown’s photo collection which came from a camera that she carried around while attending the St. Michael’s residential school. She stated that her father would always ensure she had enough film to take pictures during her stay and encouraged her to take as many as she could (Brown). These photo’s found in this collection are all fellow students that Beverly Brown attended school with and in almost all the pictures, the children are happy and smiling (example). Because of the joy and happiness one can see in the children’s faces, it would be fair to say that this shows many of the children’s strength and resilience to the pain and suffering they did face. It demonstrates their strength and resilience in the way that even though the conditions are bad, the children are still able to laugh and smile around each other, while they strengthen each other. Like one can see in the example, the students are all named and identified with an area in which they came to St. Michael’s from. This naming was done to the best of Brown’s ability from what she remembers to this day, and also helps to show the bonds that the students created with each other in order to find this strength.

Another positive aspect that was in this exhibit was the letters of apology posted. The letters posted where written by many from the Catholic church, to the RCMP, and even Stephen Harper and the government of Canada. They all reflected around the same idea of the wrong doing that was done in the past but the moved on to the desire to do better and bring a brighter and better future where such events do not take place. The letters all do state that what is the past is the past and cannot be undone, but that does not change what we can do for the aboriginal people now and in the future with hope of forgiveness.

This exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology tells a different story that the one back in september at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, but can really make one question all that goes on and where they stand on these horrible past events around the TRC.

With the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic games starting February 7th (see games schedule here) many athletes, spectators, and citizens are left wondering how safe they while really be during their visit to Russia. Many civil acts of terrorism have taken place in the last couple weeks in and around Sochi. These include bombing at subway stations, attempted terrorist attacks, and civil fights with the citizens of Russia and the Russian police.

At this time, there are hunts for three possible female terrorists that are believed to be in the city of Sochi. They are known as the ‘black widows’ and are the widows of men that have died during the fight with the Islamic militants. They act as suicide bombers in order to oppose the Russian government in hopes to fight back for their suffering. This causes a great amount of stress and wonder for the people that will be visiting Sochi since an attack could happen at any time. Since the Russian police are unsure of where these women are and if they are really in Sochi, an attack could be possible at any time. Many newspapers and news reporters are stating that its not a matter of if terrorist attacks will happen , but when they will happen.

Another large problem that Russia is facing is in regards to Russia’s anti-gay law. Many protests have been taking place in order to oppose this and promote gay rights for the Sochi games and Russia in general. The United States has fought against this by sending 3 openly gay athletes to the games, while Obama is not going to be attending. It is hard to believe that in such a time where the world has come to far from anti gay rights, a country so far developed like Russia still believes that homosexuality cannot take place and is a crime.

With the Olympics only a couple days to come, many questions are left unanswered and many people are still concerned about their safety and the safety of others. With hope that the Olympics run smoothly, Sochi is in full force ahead promoting their games and trying to ensure the safety and security of all guests who will be attending.