This Magazine articles from January 2002

This Magazine archives from January 2002

Acceptable risk? (What future risks the U.S. may be creating right now around the world).
January 1, 2002... TWENTY YEARS AGO, WHEN THE UNITED STATES ARMED AND TRAINED GROUPS OF radical Islamic rebels fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, it served its short-term interests. But now that the descendants of some of those very same groups are...

Come again? (Cream for helping women achieve orgasms).
January 1, 2002... I GOT IT IN MY MAILBOX A FEW WEEKS AGO. Baby pink, photocopied and hand-delivered, the pamphlet asked "What are Women Whispering About?" The answer, apparently, is Viacreme, just one of several new topical creams that are supposed to help...

Toxic sludge is good for you? (government reports suggest that the health risks of living near the Sydney tar ponds are low).
January 1, 2002... SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA RESIDENTS MIGHT agree with Oliver Cromwell's remark: "A few honest men are better than numbers." Recent government reports--some publicly available, others not--suggest that the health risks of living near Sydney's toxic...

How to be a terminator.
January 1, 2002... DURING THE LATE NINETIES BOOM, A WAVE OF management bibles suggested a kinder, gentler approach to dumping excess employees. But in the lean, mean zeros, the bad dream of getting your pink slip is becoming even more nightmarish. More and more...

Developing disaster: (Export Development Corporation's spending).
January 1, 2002... CANADA'S EXPORT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION PROVIDES FINANCING to help Canadian investors grow their businesses overseas. In 2000, the Crown corporation poured $45 billion into insurance and loans. A review of the financed projects shows that EDC...

Protesting too much: (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty's protest on Bay Street).
January 1, 2002... WHEN THE ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST Poverty (OCAP) spearheaded the shutdown of Bay Street last October, the question that loomed in many minds was "What do they want, anyway?" While ostensibly a protest against the pro-business policies of the...

Some men are islands: (ultra-deluxe cruise ship The World).
January 1, 2002... THIS FEBRUARY, RESIDENSEA INC. WILL launch its new-concept, ultra-deluxe cruise ship, The World. Intended for "the privileged few," ResidenSea is billing its ship not as a vacation spot but as a lifestyle. The price of a ticket (between $3...

Sentimental illness: as yet another nauseating wave of nostalgia sweeps the nation, Hal Niedzviecki asks, can't we have our history without the histronics.
January 1, 2002... PERUSING THE NATIONAL AND TORONTO MEDIA (who can tell the difference these days?), we might conclude that Canada's music scene has recently suffered two tremendous blows. The first: the closing of seedy Spadina Avenue rock and roll club the El...

Manifesto destiny: was the new politics initiative doomed from the start? Waffle founder Mel Watkins reflects on the lessons of history.
January 1, 2002... POLITICS, LIKE LIFE ITSELF, IS SUBJECT TO powerful systemic forces--leavened by occasional random glitches (think Stockwell Day). That's why the New Politics Initiative went the way of the Waffle last November. For anyone who's been watching...

Has the world gone mad? In North America, the psychiatric industry is already booming ... mental illness has reached epidemic proportions in the Third World ...
January 1, 2002... In North America, the psychiatric industry is already booming. And now, according to a new report from the World Health Organization, mental illness has reached epidemic proportions in the Third World. Has everyone gone crazy? Or are we crazy...

DSM-911.
January 1, 2002... Anxiety, hyper-vigilance disorder, sleep dysfunctions, post-traumatic stress disorder: according to the headlines, North Americans are in the grip of an epidemic of psychiatric disorders, all prompted by the horrific events of September 11.(1)...

On with the show: (Show Gallery features work by "outsider" artists. Interview with Michael Harris).
January 1, 2002... WHEN JOHN CHRISTMAN OPENED THE SHOW GALLERY IN 1989, HE could hardly have predicted that his tiny gallery would become a beacon for an artistic and therapeutic revolution. Located a stone's throw away from Toronto's famous (infamous?)...

No straitjacket required: a growing and vocal group of psychiatric survivors argues that diagnosing mental disorders is just a way to stifle social dissent ...
January 1, 2002... COLD RAIN IS FALLING ON A NOVEMBER MORNING AT THE STREET corner in Toronto where the old man stands. His white hair and beard are long, stringy and wet. His clothing is too thin for the weather -- shabby summer garb that flaps in the biting...

Psycho therapy.
January 1, 2002... In the past, psychiatric treatments were often crazier than the patients they were supposed to cure. The profession has come a long way since insanity was treated with bloodletting and electro-shock -- or has it? Here's a look at therapy's...

October tree.
January 1, 2002... THERE WAS A SUMMER MOVIE ONCE THAT WENT HUGE--IN QUEBEC anyway, the dubbed English version didn't do more than exist--about an alcoholic dog and his ten-year-old drinking companion. The kind of movie to marinate your wings in: very sweet and...

Statement of parts.
January 1, 2002... all that belonged to we discarded. all that belonged to we split down the middle parted like hair the red sea our ways. we lifejacked I can't guarantee all that belonged to we paid for fist over hand to mouth to foot....

Christine Fellows.
January 1, 2002... CHRISTINE FELLOWS promises she's in a better mood now. Two years after the release of her acclaimed debut, 2 Little Birds, the Winnipeg singer/songwriter has a new full-length CD she vows isn't nearly as sombre as her first record. "The...

(Bathroom Gallery, is Canada's weirdest artistic showcase).
January 1, 2002... The BATHROOM GALLERY may not be the smallest artistic showcase in Canada, but it's certainly the weirdest. Measuring a compact 1.5 metres by 2.25 metres, this oddball Halifax exhibit space boasts a tub, toilet, sink and two exposed pipes....

Je me souviens.
January 1, 2002... While Montreal is known for its winters, JE ME SOUVIENS (Talonbooks) depicts a chill that extends beyond seasons, freezing out those who aren't white and francophone. Originally a dramatic monologue written and performed by Lorena Gale, Je...

(Victoria's Reel Madness Film Festival).
January 1, 2002... Over the past century, the theme of insanity has been a constant in both the mainstream and the indie film scene. Movies like Psycho and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest still occupy the "best picks" section at Blockbuster, and then there's the...

I know your type.
January 1, 2002... WHEN I GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY, I APPLIED FOR A JOB AS A copy editor at a legal publisher. After he finished the interview, the human-resources guy had me do a spelling test. Then came the final phase--a "psychological type test." He...