[PHOTO] My Kananaskis jacket

My Kananaskis jacket
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

As an enthusiastic participant in the various Scouts Canada program until 1995, I attended in 1993 the 8th Canadian Jamboree held in Alberta's Kananaskis Country area in the Rocky Mountains.

Like other Scouts, I brought badges to trade. There were a dozen Prince Edward Island Scouts, and a thousand times as many Scouts from around the country and even the world. A lot of people wanted to collect badges from all ten Canadian provinces.

That's where and when I learned about supply and demand. Did I do well!

[LINK] "North Korea's Twitter Identity Crisis"

Thanks are owed to one of my Facebook friends for this.

Since early April, a Twitter account under the handle @KCNA_DPRK, claiming to be based in Pyongyang, has been twittering headlines of the official news releases published by the Korean Central News Agency, the government-run news outlet of the dictatorial Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Those 140-character news flashes have ranged from announcements of the recent underground nuclear explosions that are currently testing the rogue nation's relations with the West, to accusations of Japanese war crimes, to the invention of a new type of North Korean toothpaste with "high medical properties." (In addition to preventing cavities, it also aids in digestion and can be used to treat insect bites, eczema and colds.)

The headlines, it seems, are real--or at least as real as any that emerge from North Korea's reality distortion field. The twitterer, on the other hand, is an impostor.

In response to an e-mail from Forbes asking about its new presence on Twitter, a KCNA spokesperson replied: "We do not permit to appear KCNA on Twitter at all," and said that the agency is currently inquiring with Twitter's management regarding its tweet-alike. Twitter staff didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a twitter conversation with Forbes, the author of the KCNA twitter feed admitted that he or she was a writer and Web master for the German-language parody site Stupidedia, based in Austria. "KCNA has unintentionally funny articles, and I thought it would be funny if an antiquated regime like North Korea had a Twitter account," wrote the faux-Communist, who didn't respond to requests for his or her name. The fake KCNA account, which has gained more than 1,000 followers, was set up using the Twitterfeed RSS service to automatically syndicate every newsflash from the real DPRK news agency.

Am I alone in wondering if someone might be disappeared?

[LINK] "Looking at the overlooked"

brunorepublic has a thoughtful post examining the differences in Toronto's streetscape and appearance over time.\

What I found most fascinating were not the images of long-demolished landmarks or buildings transformed beyond recognition, but the smaller businesses, like clothing shops, gas stations, and restaurants, which were very much products of their respective time. These things tend not to be well-documented (if they are documented at all), despite -- or perhaps because of -- being very much a part of everyday life. These types of places disappear silently, largely unnoticed, and in a short span of time, it's as if they never existed at all. Old photos give a voice to them, surprising us by proving their place in time.

Everything from the typefaces used on the signage to the goods on offer instantly affixes these establishments to their era in a way which is almost never correctly duplicated in historical re-creations. I cringe when I see depictions of the 70s and 80s (and probably soon the 90s) in new movies and TV, because I can't stop thinking "no, it wasn't like that". I'm sure people older that I must think the same thing about other decades.

[LINK] "Why Is Viagra Popular and the Condom Controversial?"

Inter Press Service's Johanna Son wonders about this.

Why is the popular drug Viagra so praised for its virtues, while the condom is vilified by conservative religious groups among others the world over?

Both are ‘external’ technological interventions that relate to sexual activity. They are among the most prominent tools in the area of reproductive health and sexuality.

But it is the gender and sexual ideologies behind them - especially when combined with conservative religious forces and aspects of patriarchal culture - that put them on opposite ends of the spectrum of public acceptance.

The result is a paradox that has huge implications for public health, especially in relation to the HIV and AIDS pandemic that is now entering its third decade and affects 33 million people worldwide.

As Michael Tan, a reproductive health activist and chair of the University of the Philippines anthropology department put it: "Why is Viagra so desired and condoms so repulsive in many cultures?"

Tan stressed, condoms are in the World Health Organisation (WHO) list of essentials - unlike Viagra. In other words, the social and institutional acceptance levels of Viagra and condoms are "totally opposite to the biomedical truth."

The key differences between Viagra and contraception, at least as I understand them from a Christian perspective, is that Viagra makes conception more likely while contraception (obviously) diminishes the chance of possibility of pregnancy. Even so, as Son goes on to note, it's a minor irony that condoms and pills are often associated with promiscuity while Viagra isn't. Gender roles do play a role in this.

In the conservative Catholic context and in Philippine society, Tan explains, the importance attributed to extending the family line is key to male gender roles. Thus, "being ‘baog’ - the Tagalog word for both impotence and infertility - is to many a fate worse than death" because it is linked to male sexual prowess.

But this same focus on the need to reproduce also generates the view that men are the ones ‘responsible’ for it, and women are mere receptacles in this process. Tan explained, "Males are seen as the source of life and are therefore privileged when it comes to pleasure, and women are seen as a source of pleasure or of men’s babies."

In sharp contrast to the controversies around the condom, Viagra - a drug that was meant to cure erectile dysfunction but is also used to enhance sexual performance - is widely accepted. It has not drawn attention from conservative quarters that say they are worried about promiscuity or free sex, reproductive health activists say.

Go, read the article in full.

[BRIEF NOTE] On the transatlantic component of the Acadian diaspora

The Grand Dérangement, the ethnic cleansing of the Francophone Acadians from their homelands by the Bay of Fundy in the future Maritime province during the Seven Years War, permanently scattering Acadians across the North Atlantic world. Close to home, some Acadians resettled in isolated enclaves or unpopulated territories away from their former homeland, repopulated by New Englanders. In some places, like the colony of Massachusetts, the Acadians were only settled temporarily.

And in some places, the Acadians were resettled while retaining their identity. The most famous example of this can be found in Louisiana, where Acadian settlers welcomed by the Spanish Crown settled and evolved into Cajuns. Less known are the Acadians settled in France, as Alain Le Bioas reports in the Breton newspaperLe télégramme.

Certains réfugiés ont fait souche en terre bretonne, notamment à l'Ile Tudy, Lorient, Nantes, Morlaix(notamment les ancêtres de Dominique Lavanant), la vallée de la Rance et Auray (dont l'un d'entre eux a été maire). Belle-Ile a également reçu un contingent de 383 exilés, 78 familles. Le roi de France comptait que leur haine de l'Anglais allait contribuer à défendre l'île d'un débarquement britannique. Les ports bretons ont aussi été ceux du retour des Acadiens vers l'Amérique, mais pas vers leur pays, qui leur était encore interdits. De 1775 à 1785, 1.600 d'entre eux ont embarqué à bord de sept navires qui ont appareillé de Nantes pour la Louisiane, où se sont retrouvés la plupart des exilés. Une grande fresque murale rappelle ces grands départs, rue des Acadiens, dans le quartier nantais de Sainte-Anne, qui domine le port. Aujourd'hui, des descendants bretons des victimes du «Grand Dérangement» ont gardé un attachement à la terre de leurs ancêtres. De l'autre côté de l'Atlantique, dans la péninsule acadienne où sont lentement revenues des familles de déportés, les traditions des régions d'origine des premiers colons ont imprégné la culture et l'histoire des 70.000 habitants. Au point qu'un Breton, loin d'y être dépaysé, s'y sent comme chez lui.

Some refugees found refuge in Breton soil, notablly at Ile Tudy, Lorient, Nantes, Morlaix [. . .], the valley of the Rance and Auray[. . .]. Belle-Ile also received a contingent of 383 exiles, 78 families. The king of France counted on their hatred of the English to help defend the island from a British landing. Breton ports were also saw Acadians return to America, but not to their country, which was still banned to them. From 1775 to 1785, 1600 of them on board travelled seven ships that sailed from Nantes to Louisiana, where most of the exiles were. A large mural recalls those great departures on the the rue des Acadiens, in Nantes\s district of Sainte-Anne, overlooking the harbor. Today, Brittany's descendants of victims of the "Grand Dérangement" have an attachment to the land of their ancestors. On the other side of the Atlantic, in the Acadian Peninsula, which families of deportees slowly returned, the traditions of the regions of origin of the first settlers have permeated the culture and history of the 70 thousand inhabitants to the extent that Bretons, far from feeling away from home, feel at home.

[DM] "How Québec and Alberta are (so far) avoiding lowest-low fertility"

I've a post up at Demography Matters exploring the question that you've no doubt all been wondering about: why are TFRs in Québec and Alberta rising so much more quickly than in the rest of Canada? For a link to a study that makes an interesting argument, and some of my speculations as to long-term consequences, go to Demography Matters and read the post in full.