Crime

If you city is of any respectable size, it likely has some sort of gang problem. While this may seem like some sort of local issue they tend to a global reach, either through associates or by being a chapter of a larger gang. Gangs are not a new issue, sure they may look and act differently from gangs one hundred years ago but they essence remains the same. I am not an expert on the subject but from my observations of human organization we seem to generally be a pack animal- we tend to organize our selves into groups and as little as we would like to admit it these groups share similarities with wolves, chimpanzees and other pack animals. When you strip down the complications things like spoken and written language these our groups have the same basic dynamics as any other pack animal. The more dangerous or shitty our lives are the more dependant we become on our friends, family or members of our group.

The city I grew up in has for the past few years been facing a gang problem. While this has been somewhat beneficial to the local news broadcasters- providing them with nightly eye-catching, interesting and titillating tales to tell to their oh so willing (including myself) viewers. When the shootings first started, most of us tolerated them acting like we wished they would stop wile secretly enjoying our own local nightly CSI. Five years on the gang activity in Calgary has become some reality show we are sick of (like survivor) and can’t wait till it is canceled.

The situation has become too real- the gangsters are shooting each other in public places were we would like to frequent and on our roads! All helping to turn our formerly friendly city into the cut-throat boomtown it has become. The Gangsterism on our streets is just one of the obvious symbols of a sick city. It distracts from the other equally damaging aliments Calgary is facing. Some people seem to think that if we get rid of the gangsters the city will once again become a pleasant place and are looking for a fast simple solution. Many of the Gangsters involved in shooting each other and the occasional bystander or witness originally came from Vietnam or from a Vietnamese Canadian family (in recent years they have expanded beyond this demographic. This is not to say that it is because of the ‘foreigners’). So one of the simple solutions seems to be send them back where they came from deport he criminals from our country. But we must ask the question if this is the right thing to do?

I recently watched a BBC program on El Salvador’s gang problem the focused on the 18^th street gang who are originally from Los Angeles. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMqVd0PAm4Q&feature=related ) Under the Clinton administration (and I’m assuming the trend has continued) the founding members of the gang and their rival gang MS were deported to their country of birth El Salvador. Once there they resumed their turf war recruiting local youths. The gangster problem of LA multiplied exponentially and has bloomed into something much larger. In El Salvador the government has a separate prison for each gang as their rivalry is so intense and their numbers are so large. Instead of acting like a correctional facility the prison acts like a university for gangsters; a common thing in prison but it is explicit the case.

Gang busting is not an easy job, gangs create a parallel society and reality. Like pirates in days of yore gangs can provide disadvantages individuals with the opportunity to become very powerful and enjoy riches, family and a sense of belonging they would not otherwise have. Once someone has entered a gang they are basically committed for life. Not only is there a sense of obligation to the gang, the more you are connected you become the more dependant on it you become. Much of Gang activity is illegal so it is hard to resume regular a law abiding life after. For starters your fellow gangster may not want you to depart with secrets and the police and regular citizens will hold prejudice against you if you manage to break free; thus creating a wider gap than had existed before. This is a problem for criminals in general how can they become ‘respectable’ citizens after they have started down the road of criminality. Obviously some criminals do not deserve to rejoin civil society as they do not want to live with in our social norms and are content or compelled to pray on others; however some people have been forced down the road by bad choices and social conditions.

for anther interesting doc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekqt27CwJqk&feature=related its about Russian criminal's prison tattoos

Media perception of Protesters vs there effectiveness

The one down fall for direct action is how it is presented to the public and therefore perceived by them. On March 17 2009 George warcrimes Bush came to Calgary Alberta, he was fortunately met by protesters, unfortunately much of the media coverage such as this story by Calgary Herald (owned by CanWest Global so the TV news coverage was not much different):

tended to be fairly bias against the protest. Forgetting to add the context that George Bush as the president of the United States lied multiple times to the his people and the world on issues as serious as going to war, the article wrote the protesters off as your standard Bush haters- yes there were some there just because they saw Fahrenheit 911 but there were also people there protesting for accountability and the desire to have George W. rightly stand on trial for Suspicion of Warcrimes. the headline Arrests made in raucous anti-Bush protest Demonstrators hurl shoes and ridicule puts more hype around the story than necessary after all the police only arrested 4 individuals for fairly minor infractions (resisting arrest in the context of a protest is in most cases a minor crime in my books). The article goes on to paint the protesters as anti democratic or against freedom of speech for protesting the individuals who paid $400 a plate to listen to George Bush- a man who does not need let alone deserve anymore money for what he did as President. The most irritating thing about the coverage of this event was how the bad things that out way the good done by the Bush administration are practically forgotten about as if the world went back to the way it was before he came to power.

But back to the issue of media discrediting protests: right next to this article is a link to another one called The Protest Paradox (while it raises some important points it still comes off as an anti protest piece that does more to hurt the protest paradox than help it- a long as media focuses on the negative theatrics of protests they are contributing to problem. perhaps instead of doing human interest stories on the lady with the hat wearing Chihuahua

who's best friend is a really fat cat, they could do a story explaining why people- the intelligent ones- are at anti globalization protests- after all Global national's motto is 'news understood'

Cool Stuff

http://theyesmen.org/ - realy entertianing activists

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=43 a Vital and intersting Documentry:
Outfoxed

http://wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection&imageField.x=15&imageField.y=14
- a online archive of documents from governements
during the Cold War

http://www.g7welcomingcommittee.com/ - its a Winnipeg record label started by members
of the punk band Propagandhi and features some
pretty awesome generally politicaly oriented music
(not limited to punk)

http://www.truthlifedocumentary.com/projects.php -I saw a portion of one of their
documentries at a film festival recently. its
pretty interesting and explores peoples
realityies and how we take our sweat lives
for granted.

http://www.myspace.com/burnside780 - all kinds of music, interesting interviews and proof of a positive world community.

A well ballanced media diet:

You may not think so but consumption of media is a lot like eating food, but for you mind. In North America, and probably elsewhere I don't have enough experience abroad to say for sure, we have problem in our media consumption that is similar to our epidemic of obesity. There is an epidemic of people who uncritically consume media- they are completely caught up in a fake realty of pointless celebrity gossip and the latest items they should buy.

Similar to the obesity issue , a common soft news story, the causes of this problem include laziness on the consumers part, slick marketing and trusted names feeding us low quality goods. If all you eat is fast food then you will likely become fat or at the very least really unhealthy- likewise if all you watch is so called reality television you will become dumb or at the very least stop viewing things critical.


The point that I am trying to make is that people need to start challenging themselves and their media providers. Do not always take the quick and easy route. whats a more enjoyable experience going to a fast food place picking a combo number and eating what they give you or going to one of those hot pot type places where you get to cook your own really tasty food?

In case you do not know what hot pot is check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI6M7NJbaZ4 as for the fast food place I'm just going to assume you know. Oh while you are looking at that video do me a favor, look at the comments below look at trends there they will become important for later posts.


So why is it important to expand past reality TV and other fun programming and include things like news, documentary's or reading? well one of the awesome things about living in a democracy is your ability to participate, at some level, in running your country. Now obviously this is not going to change if you start watching the news but as a member in a free and open society you have the opportunity or really the obligation to pay attention to the world around you. How can you vote (which is officially the least you can do) if you do not know anything about the issues- that would be kind of like me voting for American Idol. the difference is that who wins American idol dose not affect what laws the government makes(which affect our way of life) .

As always Feel free to comment or question my thoughts as well as everyone else' s


Jonny B


oh here a link for some interesting documentaries- some I'm sure are boring but you might learn something interesting:

http://freedocumentaries.org/