Let me introduce you to some modern Canadian culture

First of all some background:

Tim Hortons is without doubt the largest coffee shop chain in Canada. The chain is named after, who else, but a famous hockey player. Tim opened the first Tim Hortons back in 1964, in Hamilton, Ontario. Fast forward 43 years and you have a 3000 store chain stretching across the US and Canada. To put it in perspective, within a 5 km radius from where I’m sitting right now, there are, without exaggeration, 10 Timmies (as they are popularly referred to).

During the morning every Timmies has a lineup extending to the doors, and drive thru’s with cars extending to the end of the driveways. At school, the students were extremely excited when the federation of students announced the opening of a new Tims on campus. This term I was surprised to see yet another Tims on campus. It’s not unusual to see students run to Timmies between classes to get their morning fix of coffee, many of them sacrificing the first few minutes of the lecture to stand in the long line up.

All that being said, it’s now appropriate to introduce you to the phenomenon that sweeps Canada on a yearly basis. Every year, Tim Hortons introduces their “Rrrol up the rim to win” contest, with prizes ranging from cars to iPod’s. The way it works is that rolling up the rim of a Timmies. Under the rim you’ll see that you should either “Play Again” or that you’ve won something.

Rrrol up the rim dominates conversations at the water cooler. “Have you won anything?”, replaces “Did you hear of the weather we’re getting?” as a conversation starter, and complaints about “I buy a coffee everyday and never win anything ever” which I say all the time, becomes a common complaint among people.

Last year though it didn’t stop there. Tim Hortons was the subject of the evening new across Canada when there was a dispute over who won a car. The dispute started “brewing”, as the CBC put it, when a 10 year old girl in Montreal found a coffee cup in the garbage. She asked her 12 year old friend to help her roll up the rim, only to reveal that this cup was actually the winner of a brand new RAV4. There was a huge dispute between the families over who gets to keep the car, and things got as far as lawyers requiring DNA samples from the cup. Finally Tim Hortons stepped in to give the car to the girl’s family who originally found the cup.

Today I had my fix of Tim Hortons and as you can see here, I have to play again. I’m optimistic, I know I’ll win something other than a cookie someday, a dream that I share with many Canadians every spring.

technorati tags: tim, hortons, coffee, contest, prize, Canada, culture

Yet another controversial move

Flyers are everywhere you go on campus. Little posters here, clever attention grabbers, and little yellow slips on every car in the university parking lot, all informing the students of a tuition increase of $50 per term.

It turns out, the GRT (public transit body) has struck a deal with the student government by providing every student with a $50 non-refundable bus pass, per term. While it sound like an amazing deal it’s important to note that only 15% of Waterloo students actually use public transportation to get to school. A large number of students walk to school, and a good number of them drive there. So by introducing a non-refundable buss pass that only 15% will use, seems like a big scam for most students. Especially for those who live on campus where everything is provided for them.

I’m one of the students who drive to school everyday, and while it is environmentally unfriendly, I see it as the only convenient way to get to school. If I were to take the bus everyday to school I would have to walk about 1.5 Km to the appropriate bus route, and spend a good hour and fifteen minutes each way to school. So that would be over 3 hours of time wasted every single day, time that is preciously needed to catch up on school work, resting, having a life, and every now and then, sleeping. If I drive to school, it takes me 20 minutes maximum each way, and I have the convenience of going back home quickly to pick up an assignment, or get the odd thing done with between classes.

This is the way of living in the suburbs. There’s ample parking space, and inconvenient public transportation, both in terms of timing and method. The only form of public transportation is a city buses, and they are slow, and separated by minimum 20 minutes. In Toronto things are different. The city is so packed that you’re better off jumping on the subway, or streetcar than driving and having to find parking. It’s more environmentally friendly, convenient, and even cheaper to take public transportation in Toronto. Waterloo is not like Toronto, and in no way should be considered a big city, at least not yet.

But it’s not over yet. There’s a referendum in a few days where students get to vote whether they would rather have $50 added to their tuition, or have the option of buying an equally cheap pass, without forcing everybody to get one. From what I hear, many people plan to vote "No", so hopefully this idiotic plan of encouraging public transportation will fall through. I’m all for taking public transportation, but not when it’s inconvenient, and especially not when it’s forced on me.

Picture of the day - hillarious

20070218
Originally uploaded by toychan_net.

No comment!

Dialogue between Muslim and Jewish Youth

I received the following email today. It basically talks about a new initiative to link Muslim and Jewish teens between the ages 16-19 to create an interfaith dialogue. The dialogue is all online, combining teens from Tehran, Montreal, Damascus, New York, Dubai, Moscow, Jakarta, Paris, Riyadh, London and Marrakesh. Have a read, and let someone know who you think should join..

Dear Blogger,

I am the Educational Program Director for Children of Abraham, a non-profit, interfaith organization that was founded to encourage dialogue between Muslim and Jewish youth over the internet.

We run a five-month long, on-line interfaith seminar called the Global Discovery Program (GDP) which uses cutting-edge wiki software and digital photography to facilitate Muslim-Jewish dialogue. We select a total of thirty-four Muslim and Jewish students between the ages of sixteen and nineteen from Tehran, Montreal, Damascus, New York, Dubai, Moscow, Jakarta, Paris, Riyadh, London and Marrakech to create a truly international experience for our participants....

Children of Abraham is not a political pressure group or a focus group for Palestine-Israel relations. We are an interfaith organization which realizes that Muslims and Jews have a long and ancient tradition of respect and peaceful coexistence which has only recently been strained by political factors. We hope to build empathetic relationships among our participants based on time honored Islamic and Jewish religious traditions.

As a show of our commitment to equal representation, Children of Abraham receives financial support from a balance of Muslim and Jewish donors.

I encourage you to explore our state of the art website www.childrenofabraham.org and to contact me personally with any questions or concerns you may have.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Nizar Qabbani - السيرة الذاتية لسياف عربي

This poem was posted earlier by a fellow Syrian blogger, Gardenia. I decided to share with the readers an audio file of this poem, said by the man himself, Nizar Qabbani. The poem could not be more appropriate, especially with the recent jailing of Egyptian blogger Kareem. Enjoy the file, and sorry to non-arabic speakers, I would try to translate part of this poem, but I don't think I can do it justice.

أيها الناس:
لقد أصبحت سلطانا عليكم
فاكسروا أصنامكم بعد ضلال ، واعبدونى...
إننى لا أتجلى دائما..
فاجلسوا فوق رصيف الصبر، حتى تبصرونى
اتركوا أطفالكم من غير خبز
واتركوا نسوانكم من غير بعل .. واتبعونى
إحمدوا الله على نعمته
فلقد أرسلنى كى أكتب التاريخ،
والتاريخ لا يكتب دونى
إننى يوسف فى الحسن
ولم يخلق الخالق شعرا ذهبيا مثل شعرى
وجبينا نبويا كجبينى
وعيونى غابة من شجر الزيتون واللوز
فصلوا دائما كى يحفظ الله عيونى

أيها الناس:
أنا الأول والأعدل،
والأجمل من بين جميع الحاكمين
وأنا بدر الدجى، وبياض الياسمين
وأنا مخترع المشنقة الأولى، وخير المرسلين..
كلما فكرت أن أعتزل السلطة، ينهانى ضميرى
من ترى يحكم بعدى هؤلاء الطيبين؟
من سيشفى بعدى الأعرج، والأبرص، والأعمى..
ومن يحيى عظام الميتين؟
من ترى يخرج من معطفه ضوء القمر؟
من ترى يرسل للناس المطر؟
من ترى يجلدهم تسعين جلدة؟
من ترى يصلبهم فوق الشجر؟
من ترى يرغمهم أن يعيشوا كالبقر؟
ويموتوا كالبقر؟
كلما فكرت أن أتركهم
فاضت دموعى كغمامة..
وتوكلت علىلا الله ...
وقررت أن أركب الشعب..
من الآن.. الى يوم القيامه..

- Nizar Qabbani