there's lots going on these days. the semester is fast coming to a close at Mount Allison, which I think is kind of nice; but it also means I have lots of writing and reading to do. The plays I directed this fall, The Universal Language and Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread happened on the weekend, and I was really pleased with the turnout and response. Apparently Ken Jennings' future on Jeopardy! is in jeopardy. tune in tonight. George W. Bush's visit to Ottawa and Halifax today and tomorrow has tempted me to go and pay him a visit, but I have yet to move on that. It has also prompted many global news outlets to offer their commentary on the Canada-US relationship. In this AP story, Canada-US relations took a wrong turn when Bush visited Mexico first in 2001, rather than Canada. I don't remember that being a big deal here, mostly because the entire western hemisphere had a strong interest in supporting Mexican democracy. This BBC story characterizes Canada's opposition to the Iraq war as "strong," which frankly ain't true. I think it's funny how these polarized and extreme descriptions will certainly begin to influence the media's rhetoric on the relationship. Although the Iraq war caused "problems" for the Canada-US relationship, let's not forget that Candian warships were stationed in the Persian Gulf, Canada contributed financially to the reconstruction effort, Canada is offering observers to the elections in IRaq, there were even Canadians on exchange programmes on the ground in Iraq. Our military was already engaged in an operation in Afghanistan, leaving only a handful of troops to complete our other international missions. Canada's military, after all, has only ever had symbolic importance with regard to large-scale American operations. anyway, i am procrastinating... so here's a ghazal i just wrote for my creative writing class... Calculated Acts - ghazal .Sean Thibault in my sexhaze I took Your shoes who knew we wore the same size? Farsi has never looked so good; even Anglos care now and then I know it took me six weeks to write You the postal strike was too discouraging call it recontextualization or cultural imperialism the room You left was filled with typewriters I had to get the monkeys, at 45 wpm the wine glasses were stained by red lipstick haven’t I collected all Your shades now?

some interesting things on my brain today: 1. Saturday November 27, and Sunday the 28th, Mount Allison's Windsor Theatre will be presenting two plays that I directed; both by David Ives. The first is THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, and the second is PHILIP GLASS BUYS A LOAF OF BREAD. I'll post my notes on the pieces when I finish them this weekend. 2. you should read this. It's really interesting, i think anyway. 3. busting my balls on all this work I've done for school this semester. I will be posting a few things in the coming weeks, as I finish them. i'll be posting some larger papers. as well, some samplings of my creative writing work will be available. 4. ottawa is a funny city. tomorrow is the grey cup. but there seems to be adequate excitedment on parliament hill. carolyn parrish is single-handedly changing the way Paul martin will have to play politics in ottawa. parrish's status as the second independent, means that she can trump the speaker (essentially) for tie breaking votes. obviously, real ties are always broken by the speaker, but since the majority is non existent, even with the NDP, now they'll also need her to vote. if the libs can keep the Bloc or the tories in for any votes, then they'll be set no matter what. 5. now that it's been a while since arafat died, and the israelis have (accidentaly) killed three egyptians, it is time to start reading lots of aljazeera to get an idea of the palestinian elections on jan 9. already groups are begining the nomination procedures. hamas is jockeying for proportional representation in the palestinian territories, keeping gaza and the west bank as one "district." i think they have two proportional districts; but my opinion is hardly relevent here. hopefully, now that Abu Mazen has pushed back parliamentary elections, there will be some true democracy and self-determination for the palestinians: particularly in gaza, where if things get out of control the new gov't will never be able to get peace talks off the ground.

heartfelt condolences to arafat's family and the palestinian people. I am saddened to see so many jewish responses imbued with a self-righteous positivity. Although I do believe this to be a crucial turning point for the peace process, I believe that every human's life is valuable and that our respect for this principle must rise above our decidedly human prejudices, so that when someone dies it should never be "good riddance" and always "my sympathies"

fraud in ohio? is democracy working?

a few have wondered why i have been so silent during arafat's illness (rather, his public and acute decline in health). It's plain to me that as he struggles to stay alive, the entire world should show him the same respect all human beings deserve. this is the basis of equality. souha arafat is emotional and maybe diabolical, so are many of arafat's colleagues. Israelis dancing in celebration, or even politicians demanding the so-called new policy all need to try and establish some clarity and calm in this situation. he is a sick man, and like palliative care patients and families often need, the rest of us should provide support and refrain from comment or action until it is appropriate. therefore, await my comment on the changing face of israeli-palestinian comment until such time. other things are going on in the world. that election result of one week's age today provides some interesting details. the youth vote, as a percentage of the total vote, remained unchanged, and many commentators have used this as evidence for their claims that the youth did not come out to vote. in fact, 51% of young voters came out to the polls in 2004, compared with 42% in 2000. meanwhile, in the general population (not the voting population, i could not get those stats), the population of 18-29 year olds is 11% of the total population. apparently, one-fifth of the voting population are 18-29; which would mean that 17% is not terribly far off from that. this time 'round the turnout in the election was some 52%. so if young voters came out at approximately the same rate that other voters did, which meant that 20 million more americans voted in 2004 than in 2000; does that mean democracy is still in good shape? not that voter registration policies disenfranchise voters, particularly in lower socio-economic conditions. it seems that democracy has this crisis of miseducation and un-participationl so why not scrap it, and get a better idea going on?