City
Morning Brew: January 7, 2009
Photo: "Nathan Phillips Square" by iliaa, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
The first big snowstorm of 2009 arrived and isn't planning to leave just yet. The snow and freezing rain are causing drivers all kinds of headaches, especially in the west-end, and west suburbs. I get that the snow and ice is notable and can be dangerous, but at this point in the season, we pretty much know the routine: let plows through, don't drive if you don't have to, drive with caution, etc. So do we really need the wall-to-wall coverage?
The lure of the iPhone is undeniable, and even though I still see more of them when I visit the States, Rogers was happy to announce they added 199,000 wireless subscribers in the last quarter. About 130,000 of those new subscribers were for iPhones, so it would seem despite declining economic conditions and high data rates the iPhone is the new iPod and eventually, everybody's gotta have one.
A slice of rural Indian life appears to have reared its ugly head in Peel Region's first homicide of the year. The father-in-law of the New Year's Day's stabbing victim has been arrested and will be charged with first degree murder today, in what the father-in-law appears to consider an honour killing. There are loads of (now illegal) Indian traditions that are still practiced, but usually in rural areas or amongst less educated Indians, neither of which are typical immigrant demographics. Goes to show how deeply rooted these traditions are, and like weeds, you can try to get rid of them but they keep coming back.
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Plenty of Torontonians advocate improvements to the city that would make us more European in style, but nobody meant this. Pearson Airport has been the target of a South American pickpocketing ring, to the tune of $500,000 last year. The new Terminal 1 is reasonably slick, but perhaps this is yet another reason to fly Porter.
Crappy situation for Toronto public works and the Don River: A significant section of the Coxwell Sanitary Trunk Sewer pipe is cracked beyond repair and could blow at any time. The plan is to spend $30 million over two years to build a 500m bypass. That or tell 750,000 residents from Scarborough to Downsview to not flush for a few days (or weeks, or months).
Two Toronto filmmakers are headed to Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. Jason Gossbee and Ben Goldenberg created the five minute short film White Collar Criminals, claiming second place in YouTube's Project:Direct contest. Let's do some math: 3 hours to write + 3 days to film + $200 to produce = 2 tickets to Sundance + $2500 cash prize + a copy of their movie in every gift bag + 2 gift bags full of Hollywood swag. I think it's time to start making movies!
In other news, my dad turns 60 today. Happy Birthday, Dad!
Discussion
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Are you refering to Indian's that live in the Burbs or Indians from rural Punjab?
I'm disappointed in this reasoning. White people in downtown Toronto kill each other too. Guess that tradition also keeps coming back.
blogTO, seriously, stop being so racist. It's pissing me off. Get some education.
But where did you come up with this theory? I read the Star article and it didn't mention anything about a possible honour killing.
Women in India - especially when connected to Hinduism - have faced all manner of abuse. Traditions like sati (burning yourself to death on your husband's funeral pyre) still happen (and it is often questioned whether the widow is doing this of her own volition), and many women are still burned with acid by upset in-laws, permanently disfiguring (and often disgracing) the victim. If the father-in-law thought his daughter-in-law was bringing disgrace to the family, it is not at all unreasonable to think he took violent action as a kind of tradition to restore a perceived loss of honour.
Odd thing is that they're Sikh, since honour killings are almost solely a Muslim thing. See Aqsa Pervez.
I love that it's racist to be worried about the safety and rights of women. Just as it's racist to be worried about food safety.
Jen you should really go back to your Hamas protests and celebrate the deaths of Jewish children.
So Joshua might be right, but it's a presumptuous conclusion based on their race.
This notion that honour killings are something that should be associated with Islam or rural India is ridiculous and, at the very least, treads into the grey area of racism.
Huh? Google 'Honour Killings' or go to www.stophonourkillings.com (International Campaign to Stop Honour Killings). This is a commonly accepted term for a specific type of crime that is unfortunately associated with radical Islam, rural India/Pakistan, and parts of Africa.
Damn people, take 5 seconds to educate yourselves before throwing accusations or racism.
See articles on honour killings in jordan, pakistan, turkey, etc. The shock and horror is seeing this barbaric practice come from such benighted places to civilised countries like Canada, the UK, and (well, sort of) France. See also the kidnapping and forced marriage of a British Doctor by her parents in Bangladesh.
It is not the skin colour that deserves condemnation, it is the horrible crime and the ideological infrastructure that supports it: Islam, village tradition, and politically correct whining that calling barbarism barbarism is racist. What next, a defense of suttee, or perhaps the dispossession and forced prostitution of widows?
We all were appalled by Fritzl's rape and detention of his daughter for years. Does that make non-whites who condemned him racist? Hell no, that makes them right. Just because a crime is disgustingly pervasive, it shouldn't give the perpetrators a shield from criticism.