Citizens' Press sat down with five commentators to discuss the current Facebook scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. The dialogue has been edited and presented here to help inform the broader discussion of Facebook on the left.
Facebook, Data Mining, and Changing Childhoods, LECTURES D'HIVER, Ontario Liberals do not understand what universities are for
Par hasard, je suis tombée sur la référence d'un livre de Patrick Chamoiseau récemment traduit vers l'anglais. L'auteur natif de la Martinique a passé le plus clair de sa vie à ce jour à écrire, à raconter des histoires, et à défendre la création créole. Dans ce court roman intitulé L'esclave vieil homme et le molosse, le lecteur part à la poursuite de cet homme en quête de liberté. Celui-ci s'échappe de la plantation où il a passé des années interminables au service d'un maître infatigable et il court. C'est court, mais combien puissant comme petit roman !
Cherie Dimaline first published a novel in 2011, and should be on everyone's list of authors to follow. Her most recent book is The Marrow Thieves, which received multiple awards and competed in the 2018 edition of Canada Reads. The novel is set in a world ravaged by climate change, where it rains almost every day and humans have been through numerous environmental catastrophes. Everyone has lost the ability to dream in their sleep, except for Indigenous people who have, in their bone marrow, a special composition that allows them to continue dreaming. As a result, they are persecuted. In this book, we get to know eight people through the eyes of a young boy, Francis also known as Frenchie, who is part of this group on the run from the marrow thieves.
'This is a real historic moment, because throughout Latin America we've been having all this experimentation with left-wing and progressive governments throughout the region, from Brazil to El Salvador to Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, as to Uruguay, and Mexico had been left out of this pink tide. We have been stuck with this single ideology of neoliberal authoritarianism since the 1980s. But now, finally, it looks like we're going to be able to try something new.'
Congratulations to the people of Mexico!
It is a strange experience to be in the midst of reading an excellent dystopic novel when the world around you keeps showing signs that it is coming apart at the seems. Just last week, in real life, we followed the news of children being torn away from their parents and kept in child detention centres in the United States. Meanwhile, I was immersed in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, a novel where a young woman struggles through a time of environmental depletion and fatal wealth inequality that is set in …2024. Butler's portrayal of what we could call a future that is too close for comfort rings so true today.
Football fans across the globe are focused on the World Cup, which started just over a week ago and is hosted in Russia. The tournament takes place every four years, and will be, as always, one of the most watched sporting events of the year. For this non-sports fan, the World Cup is an object of fascination with good timing. In these early days of summer, watching football and getting into the game is a welcome distraction. Here is a short, global, and somewhat political reading list for following the World Cup.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2018 Issue of the journal Academic Matters. All told, Canadian public universities are massive employers of students, teachers, researchers, librarians, academic and research support technicians, academic support workers (custodians, building services, food services, grounds and building maintenance), apprentices, councillors, utility workers, administrators, clerical workers, bartenders, security guards, and parking staff. Together, all of these workers maintain a space that fosters the advancement and dissemination of knowledge.
