The Wafting Smell of Waffles

by M. A. Hamad

(credit: Sifu Rinka) Wanda's Belgian Waffles has become a familiar sight, scent and flavour in downtown Toronto.

A couple of years ago, if you took a walk around the Ryerson campus at lunch time you’d see a lot of wraps and street meat being wolfed down between classes. Nowadays, chances are just as high that you’ll see plastic containers lined with fresh waffles and stuffed to the brim with a choice of strawberries, chocolate, caramel, whipped cream or ice-cream.

Within less than two years, Wanda’s Belgian Waffles has become a common stop for Ryerson students. Just around the corner from campus, the hole-in-the-wall is impossible to miss despite having barely enough room for you to step in and place your order. It lures people in with a clear display of chocolaty, sugary goodness. Even if you don’t see it – you smell it. The fresh smell of dough being dumped onto a waffle maker is unmistakable as it wafts down Yonge St. The waffles, which come in vanilla, cinnamon, maple and strawberry, are all under 3 dollars apiece without toppings, making them ideal for a quick, warm bite in the cold weather. (If the sun’s out, 2 dollars extra gets you a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.)

(credit: Sifu Rinka) There are toppings to taste at the hole-in-the-wall café.

But the place didn’t get noticed for nothing. It spent months trying to get the word out as a lady stood outside, wearing Wanda’s logo on a deep red apron and handing out flyers. Today, a white-bearded man in a baseball cap and a white chef coat stands inside, flipping the waffle maker and greeting passer-bys through an open space above the display. “Hello, my friend,” he says. Some ignore him altogether, but others can’t resist looking – and smelling – twice.

Summary: Wanda's Belgian Waffles has quickly become a popular spot around the Ryerson campus in downtwon Toronto.

Good weather, good books

(photo credit: www.marwahamad.com) 

Good weather calls for good books in Toronto.

by M. A. Hamad

The presence of spring in Toronto is palpable as rain turns into sun, jeans turn into shorts and boots turn into sandals. One accessory that can come in handy at any restaurant patio or during the lazy hours spent at Dundas square is a good book.

“Right now, because most people are shopping for Easter presents, we’re selling a lot of teen interest books,” says Melinda Hinman, 24, an employee at Chapters. “They’re all 20% off, which is a special we have for spring break. This spring, we’re looking forward to a new Chuck Palahniuk book and a new Charlaine Harris book which are always really popular.”

Hinman says that because it’s tax season, financial books like “The 15 Things the Taxman Doesn’t Want You to Know” are flying off the shelves, as well.

Kat Drennan-Scace, 26, a Youth Services Librarian at Hamilton Public Library agrees that young adult books are generating quite some buzz this spring. She says one of the books, “Before I Fall” by Lauren Oliver seems like a more modern, hipper Groundhog day, while the other, “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” by David Levithan and John Green is a story told by two men with different sexual orientations who share the same name.

“It’s also worth mentioning that the most anticipated prequel of the spring comes out April 27,” she says. “The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell. For Sex and the City fans, I'm sure this will be a must-read as they find out what Carrie was like pre-New York and how she came to the city she loves.”

Jaclyn Wright, 19, says she’s just excited to read something that she won’t be graded on. “I don’t have anything in particular in mind, but as long as there’s no test on it at the end of the year, I’ll be more than happy to have the time to read it.”

Summary: good weather isn't the only thing that people can look forward to this spring, but good books, as well.

The Internet & Facebook -- Define “Privacy”...

by M. A. Hamad

Screenshot of Facebook profile.

It used to be that people shouldn’t talk to strangers with dodgy nicknames in dodgy chat rooms – images of men with bulging bellies and receding hairlines saying they’re tall, built and chiseled to the bone come to mind – but nowadays even the most popular websites are places to be skeptical about. Like Facebook.

The social networking website, which has over 400 million active users, introduced a controversial set of privacy settings in December of last year that made people wonder – are they protecting us or tricking us into thinking they are?

The most troublesome of the settings was one that made people’s photos automatically accessible to the public, no matter what their settings used to be. Photo settings that used to be set to share with “friends of friends” or “friends only” instantly changed to “everyone” – because Facebook said so.

The fact that this ‘privacy setting’ overrode important choices that users made about their personal protection when setting up their profiles makes Facebook’s current privacy policy page slightly comical. The first bullet point of the policy reads, “Facebook is designed to make it easy for you to share your information with anyone you want,” but should perhaps end a little more accurately – anyone you want, and anyone we want.

 
Summary: Beware! Facebook privacy settings not designed to provide ultimate and trustworthy protection.

"The march towards a completely digital information world is unstoppable."

by M. A. Hamad

Traditional journalism can't keep up with the online world. (Photo credit: http://www.marwa-hamad.com/)

Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the popular news website The Huffington Post, is on TV. Peter McNelly, a broadcast journalism instructor at Ryerson University for the past seven years, with over 30 years of experience in print, broadcast and radio journalism before that, is too busy speaking on the phone to watch.

“I’m not worried that I’m not listening to it,” he says. “Because I know it will end up on the CBC website.”

According to him, the march towards a completely digital information world is unstoppable – it’s just a matter of time. He admires Huffington’s gut to go after the large audiences with her website’s content, from commentary, to humour, to pop culture and citizen participation, all packaged in an interactive multimedia format.

The Huffington Post is not the only website that has advanced the shift towards online journalism. With sites such as Politico and the New York Times, up-to-the minute news is literally just a click away.

McNelly says it’s irrelevant whether this shift is good or bad. The question, he adds, is how journalists will adapt, and perhaps most importantly, “Why would you wait until 10 o’clock to watch the news or wait until the morning to get the newspaper when you could get any piece of information on the internet anytime?”


Summary: "The march towards a completely digital information world is unstoppable," says Peter McNelly, who has devoted 40 years of his life to more traditional forms of journalism.

Despite low crime rates, Canada plans to spend more than $13 billion a year on punishing criminals rather than helping to break the cycle of crime instead.

by M. A. Hamad

The streets of Toronto are safer than they have been in a while as, according to the Toronto Star, crime rates have gone down over the past quarter century. (Photo credit: http://www.marwa-hamad.com/)

According to Jim Rankin, a reporter and photographer who helped put together a multimedia section about crime in Canada for the Toronto Star’s website, crime has gone down over the last several years in Toronto, but the media and politicians instill a fear for safety in Canadians nonetheless. Though there are 13 high risk areas in Toronto, Rankin says, “It has nothing to do with crime.”

The government spends $13 billion dollars a year on keeping criminals behind bars, a number that is about to go up with the passing of stricter laws which aim to get more people off the streets and for longer periods of time.

A more beneficial approach, according to the Star, than spending literally billions of dollars on jailing criminals, who have sometimes already seen the inside of a jail cell, is to spend the money on programs that will break the cycle of crime even before it begins.

Expulsion schools, where expelled students get the special attention needed to resolve their issues, help troubled students but only after damage is done. “They do get the help they need,” says Rankin. “But it’s at the end of the game.”

The Star online tries to bring special attention to the issue through a section titled Crime and Punishment that has everything from video interviews with criminals in the GTA, interactive games where the player guesses the sentence of a crime, and photographic timelines of Canada’s prisons and criminal justice.

“The challenge is making sure people see it,” says Rankin.

Summary: Though crime rates have been decreasing, Canada plans to spend more than $13 billion a year on keeping criminals behind bars while the money could be spent on preventing crime in the first place.

High-school students face strong competition from laid-off workers for limited spots at Toronto universities and colleges.

by M. A. Hamad


University of Toronto campus. Photo credit: http://www.utoronto.ca

High-school students planning to continue on to a higher education in Toronto could face significant competition for limited spots from “someone in their 40s” or “someone in their 20s who spent a couple of years backpacking around Europe”, says John Milloy, Minister for Training, Colleges and Universities in Ontario.

OUAC director George Granger says holidays will be a busy time for students who must get their university applications in before January 13th. Deadlines for college applications are only slightly more forgiving, ending by February 1st. According to Milloy, however, even if the deadlines are reached, Grade 12 students will not be guaranteed priority.

With a 10 per cent growth in applications in recent years, competition between applicants is strong. Unemployment is causing laid-off workers to seek an education in more practical fields, some aided by an Ontario government program that helps finance their education, which makes a spot even harder to achieve.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath believes the government should have prepared for such an obvious issue, however she doesn’t believe that students should be given priority.

“At this point, I don't think it's appropriate to say, 'you're going to be the winners here,' to identify one group or the other and 'you're going to be the losers here,' and identify one group or the other,” says Horwath.

Milloy says that colleges and universities work with the government to ensure that the most qualified students get in, no matter what their background.

Summary: Competition for limited spots in the universities and colleges of Toronto becomes even stronger with the economic crisis as unemployed workers seek a higher education as well, with no priority given to Grade 12 students.