So in the past few weeks, we have encountered multiple attacks against women on the UBC campus. These attacks have been targeted against young women who have been walking alone late at night around campus. Of the four girls that have been attacked, they have all been wearing skirts and been dragged off main roads into the woods while walking alone. This have raised concern and awareness to the RCMP on campus and local students, staff, and the general public around Vancouver.

It has been a topic of discussion between almost all students and staff throughout campus. I can personally say that it has been something that has been brought up in each of my classes and it has always been regarding how women can protect themselves and stay safe in these times. But what advice should be given for men? Why can men walk freely without having to worry about being assaulted or accused.

To this, I wanna bring up how in my Political Science class on monday, one young man brought up about how after the third assault, he had many of his friends calling and texting him question if it was him that was attacking these women. They were saying that he looked exactly like the description of the attacker. He also mention how he feels attacked and worried for his safety now and possibly being mis-accused for something he has no relation to. From a guy who doesn’t live on campus and never stays on campus past 4pm, he felt victimized.

To this, the description of the man preforming these attacks is very vague and does not describe a certain individual alone, instead can connect to a large group of men. Another ironic thing that I realized the other day was we are having these attacks now after the exposure of the Sauder School of Business rape chants that occurred after Sauder frosh. Could these attacks be an act of rebellions’ against UBC for the ban of frosh for years to follow?

I believe that men and women should be warned and protected equally while these attacks are taking place. It may be a feminist thought, but all men and women should be looked at equally in a way the men should not be aloud to walk freely without having to worry while women must not walk alone and must be ready in case an attack may come for them.

Over the last few weeks of class, we have discussed the idea of globalization through blogs and also graphic narratives. Blogs such as Where is Raed by Salam Pax in which Pax blogs about the events that where taking place in Baghdad, we also read Baghdad Burning by Riverbend who is a teenage girl living through the events in Baghdad. Lastly, we spend some time reading Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi which is a graphic novel that deals with the author telling her story growing up through the Islamic Revolution. An idea present in all three of these narratives is war and how war has affected and changed the lives of many.

Pax is always blogging about how bombings and attacks are happening on his city as he types his blog, but he able to bring a sense of humour into his blog posts. I feel that Pax sees all the attacks and acts against his city his city as normal and doesn’t fear or worry much of it anymore as it has become an everyday occurrence. He is always out taking pictures of the events going on in the streets and doesn’t seem to worry much that he could get in trouble for his actions. Not to forget, Pax writes his blog in an inviting manner that really questions the audience and has an engaging attitude that causes people to question his existence. As brought up by Gillian Whitlock in Word Made Flesh, people start to ask the question, “was he real?” and many thought the CIA, Mossad, or Baathist regime had an agent posting (2). I feel that these questioning came up because of the genre in which Pax posted and was so open and whiling to show the terror of what was happening. I questioned myself the first time I was reading his blog because he had so much information on the events taking place, but also his willingness to share.

The the contrary, in Riverbend’s blog, she writes her posts in more of a story or novel type fashion. Similar to Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, which is written as her life narrative that reveals her everyday events that she had to endure while living through the Islamic Revolution. In both narratives, the authors feel sympathy for those that has been done wrong by the government or another force acting in rebellion. Since both women are young, educated, critical, and also vocal in acting in rebellion against for their beliefs of what is right, it makes them quite similar. Both women also touch on the idea of a western culture and influence and have their own ways of trying to connect with it. By having such a desire for this western culture, it shows both of their willingness to rebel against social norms.

Through the different readings with have done with Pax, Riverbend, and Persepolis, it has really opened my eyes to things that take place around the world and how fortunate I have to live somewhere so peaceful where I don’t have to worry about my life everyday. It has helped me to see that there is another world happening out there and how living in such a developed country like I do, we don’t see what really goes on from day to day.

On Wednesday september 18th, the University of British Columbia canceled classes to accommodate for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Classes were cancelled to welcome in the TRC and also to give students an opportunity to look into what has happened in Canadian history with the Aboriginal community. It also gives students, professors and other public figures around the school to pay their respects to the Aboriginal people whose land the school and other places in the metro Vancouver area sits on. This is a very important thing to the Canadian government, who has affected the life of Aboriginal people in so many ways, to be able to apologize formally on the matter and start to correct what was done wrong in the past.

When I visited the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery to look at the Witnesses: Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools exhibit, the first thing that struck me was the video “Savage” by Lisa Jackson where a young girl is taken from her mom and brought to one of the Residential schools. Once the girl gets to the school, they cut her hair, take her clothes and make her wear a uniform. Essentially stripping her of her personality, her culture, and her religion. While this is all happening, her mom is home by herself crying and screaming for her daughter to come back home. She is miserable knowing that she may never get her daughter back, and if she does get her back, she will never be the same. This really affected me because I was able to understand somewhat how the mother felt because I have gone through personally family issues where a family member changes and becomes someone new due to sickness or other medical reasons. Even though the circumstances are different, the idea behind both is very similar.

Some other the other artwork that really affected me was the paintings by Gina Laing called “Untitled.” These paintings explained what Gina witnessed and went through personally at the Residential schools. Some of the big ideas in all of the paintings where constant eyes that where watching her all the time. She mentioned how anything she would do, there was always someone observing her or she felt that there was. She was never given any sort of freedom. Another large idea present throughout many of the paintings is the idea of a light that a girl is carrying. This girl is Gina herself, and this light she carries is explained as her hope that she has that everything will work out for her and she will get out one day. She also paints many of the people that abused her and the other girls she went to school with, and she would paint these people differently then what they actually looked like. This shows how disturbed Gina is by the events she had to deal with as a child.

Many of the other art works displayed how bad these children had to live in the residential schools. The conditions were very bad and nobody should have to live in such conditions. The artwork really reflected what these children had to live through and how unfair it was of the Canadian government to treat Aboriginal people this way.

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