FUTURE PERFECTIssue #5: Oct '12

send comments to futureperfect.editor@gmail.com

This Month’s Contributors Mini-bios of those who made it possible

IntroductionBy the Editor

Mouse Potatoes, Rise Up!Alaya Yeonhui Ji Meditating on Social Media: Democratization or Polarization?Toru Nagaiwa

The Situationists and the Life(-art) DisconnectSara Scholze

Smart Phones, Dumb PeopleLucas Schleier

Organ(s) for Sale One (Desperate) Previous OwnerHironori Iwasaki

SUBWAYS: Lifelines of the MetropolisAsuka Yamamoto

MusiConnectionTatiana Sayuri

Forging Links in a Globalizing WorldFrantz Georges Sabin

Where the money went...

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I N T R O D U C T I O Nto the

(DIS)CONNECT ISSUE

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS

Picking up my son from karate the other morning, I was handed a copy of the dojo`s monthly newsletter.

It usually contains something quite profound, and this one in particular explains quite succinctly our theme for this month...

Enjoy.

Mark Dallas

Mark Dallas teaches the Journalism class and has been the Editor of Future Perfect since its first issue in November 2011. He draws on his addiction to surfing the Internet and his many years of experience as a Graphic Designer, 8 of which were for BBC Television News.

Toru Nagaiwa is a sociology major from Japan. Last year, he conducted interviews and compiled statistics to research “the awareness of people you don’t know on Twitter” and found out how people connect on line. In this issue, he adds his opinions to his findings.

Asuka Yamamoto is an economics major from Japan. Her hobbies are traveling, reading, and photography. Her dream is to travel around the world.

Tatiana Sayuri is a Communication & Marketing major and has worked as a Media Planner for almost 3 years at an advertising agency in Brazil. She is in love with

music, photography, art and seeks new experiences in different countries and cultures.

Lucas Schleier worked as a journalist in Itajai, Brazil for a couple of years. However, he is currently between jobs but living happily in Toronto. He says he plays guitar, but is actually a big fan of making noise.

Frantz Georges Sabin is from Martinique, a French overseas region. He studied computers and banking organization & methods and has over thirty years of professional experience. He has been learning English since April 2012.

Alaya Ji is a student from South Korea and learned very quickly (from Tamires Criscio—thanks, Tamires!) how to use Adobe InDesign to design the layout of the magazine.

Special thanks to Will Kiddle for his help.

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Mouse Potatoes, Rise Up!

ave you ever heard the expression “Mouse Potato”?

It is someone who spends a great deal of leisure time in front of the computer, in much the same way a couch potato does in front of the television.

Both activities tend to be accompanied by snacking. A recent survey by the American Snack Food Association found that 85% of web surfers snack at the computer. It has been observed that this habitual nibbling and relative inactivity can lead to development of a characteristic potato-like body form.

Just look around, and you will find most of the people glued to their laptops or PCs for endless hours. Sure, many of them might be involved in some serious projects and office work, but there are an increasing number of people, comprised of both adults, teenagers and children, who keep surfing the web with no real aim.

For more information, I conducted a survey on computer use habits in ILSC. Most people I surveyed use a computer every day on average 1-4 hours. Over 35% of ILSC students have some bad health symptoms. These are usually “pain in the eyes, neck, shoulder/s, and low back pain”. The causes of these bad health symptoms are “bad posture, not stretching, and long period of usage.”

Many people want to know how to prevent these symptoms, so I’ve put together a list of simple exercises.

Try this 12-point set of stretching exercises (see the box) as a part of your regular routine. They can be done anywhere and require no equipment. (Information provided by the Hospital Authority’s Coordinating Committee for Physiotherapy.)

Finally, I’d like to introduce an interesting item for mouse potatoes: "My Soft Office" Weekly Dinner Plate by Hella Jongerius.

This design is a marriage

H

1. Place you head down and chin down

2. Tilt your head toward right and left

shoulders

3. Turn your head right and then left

4. Squeeze your hands

5. Stretch your forearms

6. Stretch your fingers

7. Stretch the outer muscles of your

upper arms

8. Stretch the inner muscles of your

upper arms

9. Stretch your armpit muscles

10. Stretch your quadriceps

11. Stretch your spine and then gradu-

ally bend your back

12. Straighten your legs and stretch

your calf muscles

12-point set of stretching exercises

between furniture and technology by combining technology we use every day, like typical screens and keyboards, with domestic situations such as

sleeping and eating. What a fun idea it is!

As computers in our day-to-day lives have become so important that nothing can replace them, we have to make a balance between real life and technological life (or on-line and off-line).

Things to Remember • Always stretch your muscles slowly.• You should never feel painful while stretching. If you do, stop.• Stay relaxed.• Keep your breathing normal.• Try to do the exercises in a stand-ing pose as it will be easier to change posture between each exercise.• Do each set of exercises five times.

"My Soft Office" Weekly Dinner Plate by Hella Jongerius.

Alaya Yeonhui Ji

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How often do we hear “we can connect to everybody on Internet?”. Nowadays, almost all people around the world use Internet in order to search what they need to know, to make their works easier and even just to have fun.

But probably the main pur-pose why we use it is to connect to the people we want. Moreover, things which en-courage us to connect togeth-er more, such as social media like Facebook, Twitter and so on, have come about in recent years. Today, they have become so common around the world that it is very hard to find peo-ple who don’t use them.

Many of us expect social me-dia to be a platform where peo-ple get together and discuss any issues, especially political ones,

and help our “democracy”. It’s true that we can connect to ev-eryone we want. However, can it really become a platform for everyone to discuss and thereby help democracy?

We need to figure out how we connect to each other on social media and ex-plore its poten-tial as a catalyst for change.

First of all, how can we re-ally connect to each other? Sta-

tistics from a 2007 survey car-ried out by scholars in Michigan State University reveal the ten-dency of connections. For the statement, “I use Facebook to connect with offline contacts,” the result was 3.64 (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree). On the other hand, for “I use Face-book to meet new people”, the result was 1.97. As we can see,

people prefer to connect with those they know rather than those they don’t.

Cass Sunstein, an Ameri-can legal scholar, claims that people tend to read and listen to only what already inter-ests them, disregarding opin-ions different from their own. Sunstein asserts that it is a huge obstacle because, in a democ-racy, it is very important to talk with people who have different opinions and find out the best way for own societies. However, in reality, birds of a feather flock together, and Sunstein calls this “group polarization”. We think we’re connecting with “every-one”, but in fact we cherry pick, thereby seeking to confirm what we believe.

So what should we use social media for? I would like to sug-gest two uses for it: mobiliza-tion and support.

The Egyptian demonstra-tions against Mubarak in 2011 were some of the first to make use of social media, which was very useful to organize people against the dictatorship by tell-ing people where and when demonstrations were going to be held. Consequently, demon-

strations were able to become massive. Without it, fewer peo-ple might have shown up, and the Egyptian authorities might have more easily extinguished this fire. As you can see, social media is very effective to mobi-lize people.

It is also very effective as a means of emotional support. If a person is depressed, he or she can talk to friends who can try to help resolve the problem.

Therefore, I suggest we make use of social media as a con-sultative tool. Of course, if you have a lot of friends and family you can trust in real life, it might be no problem. However, if you don’t have these connections, it can be a big deal. The point here is that you can connect with ev-eryone you like (and even don’t know) on social media. It is the hero that releases us from isola-tion.

Social media has the potential to connect everyone, but it is un-likely to develop the democratic process. Connections cause dis-connections, but the most im-portant point is the connection itself.

Meditating on Social Media:Democratization or Polarization?

Toru Nagaiwa

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How often do you have art in your life? Actually, what do you consider as art? Is it just a painting on canvas that you pay to see in a museum? Do you think that knowing art can connect you with society?

These days, people are very busy. Things need to be fast, and we rarely have time to talk to family or friends for a long time. Our moments for having fun, meeting people or doing a pleasant activity are very short, and we always complain that the time wasn’t enough. However, this is not just the reality these days and, in some ways, that’s what the Situationists talked about years ago.

The Situationists were a group of artists, writers and philosophers that joined a post-war international art movement

founded in 1957 and lasting 15 years. Their first idea was that art should be part of our everyday lives, because they considered that we constantly live in a suppression of feelings

and relations with each other.

Thinking in this direction, they also realized that to achieve changes in this situation, we should reflect on the world’s p r e d o m i n a n t s y s t e m : c a p i t a l i s m . One important work about the

Situationists’ ideas is Society of Spectacle by Guy Debord. He affirms that modern society is mediated by representations instead of being lived directly.

For instance, we study/work every day, go home, watch television, and buy things. Why do we do that?! Because that’s the way we’ve learned to “live”.

We need to study/work to be successful, to earn some money because we need to buy things and spend money to be connected with society. These things create an image about ourselves, which Debord conceptualizes as “appearance into a commodity”. In other words, we try to make connections with other people by our images, by what people will think about each other.

Indeed, we buy things that we see others having... How many hours do you spend w a t c h i n g television? To many things we see there, we don’t even pay any attention! How many times did you buy something to try to look like someone on TV? Every day, we have access to information, images and advertisements, but do we stop to deal with them, to think about their meaning? We see them, they pass through our lives, but they’re usually

disconnected from us.Debord warns us about

being just spectators of our own lives, obeying the system, consumerism, and no longer being happy because our images (appearances) need to change all the time, we need to be connected with the way the society in which we are included behaves.

Art can help us in a sensitization of per-ceptions. The Situationists’ ideas were about not a c c e p t i n g facts and images the way they come to us. Art is about a n a l y z i n g

things, not just paintings or artistic works in a museum or gallery, but also having a deep thought about what we are seeing.

To have a deep thought about things in our own lives can be very difficult, but we have to think: What really connects us as people in the world?

The Situationists and the Life(-art) Disconnect

Sara Scholze

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You are walking on the streets of Toronto, wondering if there’s time for a coffee. What time is it? You grab your smart phone to see it. Oh! A new message on Facebook. Just going to answer this one and put it back in my pocket. BAM!! You bump into somebody that was doing the exact same thing as you. Have you ever had this experience or saw something familiar?

According to The Associated Press, the number of accidents involving distracted pedestrians have increased by over 400% in the last 7 years. These are related to the number of people injured due to walking incidents caused by lacking of attention.

With the increasing number of smart phones sales, we start to notice how connected people are with the online world and how “AFK” (away from keyboard) they are within reality.

Here’s a quick story from my personal experience. An average Canadian family composed of Mommy, Daddy and two daughters was supposed to have family time together by watching some blockbuster

movie. They are all sitting in the same “chesterfield” (they’re Canadian after all), physically close to each other, but older Sis is posting something on Facebook using her iPod; Mommy is checking her emails on her iPad and Daddy is checking the Blue Jays’ schedule on his laptop. Little Sis is there, quietly watching the movie and waiting for someone to look at the big screen so she can tell everyone how great it is to be having “family time”.

As for the bad things about being connected all the time, 18-year-old student Taylor Sawer died last January 14th after uploading, “I can’t discuss this now. Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha,” just moments before crashing into a truck and dying immediately.

She knew that she was not supposed to text while driving, but nowadays you need to tell everybody how you feel about something, even if it leads you to imminent death. Here we

have a serious contender to win a Darwin Award.

These posthumous awards celebrate those dumb enough to vanish from this world in the most absurd ways. Cell phone users are a constant in the nominee list.

Take the story of 19-year-old Lina Villegas, who, in February 10th of 2004, jumped onto the subway tracks of New York City to retrieve her new phone that fell from her hands. As she learned the hard way, five-foot platforms are not easy to climb, especially when a massive iron subway train comes rushing in your direction.

One good piece of advice is that trains of any kind won’t stop quickly, and in a battle between men and trains, the solid iron vehicle always wins.

Incidents like these tend to lead us to some questions. Are we smart enough to use these devices? Apparently not, due to all of these stories we hear every day.

Also, do we really need to be in constant contact with these supposed “friends”?

Imagine this scenario: taking your girlfriend/boyfriend out to dinner is one great way to spend time together, right? Eating something different? Good! A little bit of wine? Sure!

Why not? And then, someone sends you a video of the new music sensation. (Gagnam Style, anyone?) A quick look? Of course! Food is not here yet. Your loved one looks bored, so he/she takes out his/her smart phone to see what time it is and checks if someone uploaded new pictures on Facebook.

Suddenly, you realize your food is already served, your special dinner is just another meal, and your partner is getting further and further away.

From now on, the tendency will favour those who are aware of their surroundings. Hearing and seeing will become more valuable than texting and uploading.

Are you a person who can connect to the world? Are you happy to be stuck in this twisted reality? And do you think we are going to evolve into some new species that can do multiple tasks?

If this is really what Darwin was talking about when he came out with the concept of natural selection, maybe we won’t have these stupid accidents involving distracted people and their devices any more.

After all, it is not a good thing to be the next Darwin Awards nominee.

Smart Phones,Dumb PeopleLucas Schleier

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What would you do if selling your organs was the only way out of poverty? Do you think you’d care about dignity, ethics, or self-respect? I think the fact that those people are struggling to survive deserves our consideration because a lot of people in developed countries have no idea what they’re living for, and some as a result, choose to end it all.

These “red markets” will never disconnect from the world unless the economic s i t u a t i o n improves in c o u n t r i e s where the body parts trade is thriving, a n d t h a t wo n ’ t

happen until we all wake up and realize that the hearts of our communities—what connects us as humans—have been ripped out by the grasping hands of corporate greed and replaced with a meaningless emptiness.

Organ(s) for Sale One (Desperate) Previous Owner

Do you carry an organ donor card? Facebook users in the UK and the US can choose to donate their organs. Anybody can be an organ donor easily. Many people have their lives saved by organ donations, while many others die before they find a match.

However, it’s not always done legally, especially in developing countries or the Third World. There are some stories you can hardly imagine about body parts exchange in the world. 48-year-old Gheorghi Ungureanu sold his kidney in 1999 for $3,000 in Moldova, one of the top countries for organ harvesting. He was going to Israel to get a job, but the next thing he knew, he was in Turkey.

According to BBC News, Ungureanu was taken to Istanbul and “…seen by many doctors who gave us lots of blood tests. We were taken to hospital. I was afraid. I don’t quite know how I decided to do it. It was very difficult after the operation. I could hardly move. I woke up in pain.”

In Moldova, 80% of the population live below poverty level. Many are desperate for money while wealthy patients who are looking for a donor do whatever it takes to find it. The bottom line is everybody is struggling to survive.

Even though there are many sensational myths about drugged travelers waking up in ice-filled bathtubs to discover that one of their kidneys has been harvested by organ thieves, the market for body parts is all too real.

There are places around the worlds where there is a black market in vital organs (although a more appropriate term might be “red market”).

In India, there’s a village nicknamed Kidney Village, where women are lined up with exposed abdomens to sell their kidneys. One of the women said, “My financial situation is very difficult. I lost my job and I need money for my children to go to school.”

Hironori Iwasaki

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The subway (sometimes called the Metro) is familiar to many of us. Most people use the subway every day. Of course, I’m one of them since I came to Toronto. Nowadays many large cities have subway systems. Perhaps you are familiar with some of them. If not, here are some interesting points about the most famous ones.LONDON/ENGLAND

The first subway system was opened as the Metropolitan Railway in London, England on 10th January, 1863. Since then, subway systems have been built all over the world. Also, it had the first corporate design, with its very own font (Johnston, named after its designer Edward Johnston), the roundel log(by Frank Pick) and a diagrammatic map (by Henry C. Beck). The now-famous map, called the “Tube map”, uses 3 kinds of lines: vertical, horizontal, and 45° angle. It was the first map to show the stations’ relative

crew on each train, operation is automatic. It has very clean trains and now even has air conditioning. It’s the safest transportation system in Brazil because there are police officers in the stations and on the trains.

NYC/AMERICANew York is a very busy city and the

subway is one of its icons. It operates 24 hours, 365 days a year. Over 100 humorous bronze sculptures by Tom Otterness are to be found in 14th Street/8th Avenue Subway Station. If you want see some subway art,

there is an online art guide which tells you about designers and stations (nycsubway.org/perl/artwork). There is also a Music Under New York program, which supports local musicians.

position rather than their actual location. This makes the map easy to understand, and now many subway systems have adopted this style around the world.

The London Underground boasts some of the most beautiful stations, and seats on many trains have comfortable cushions. People who live in London call their subway the Underground or the Tube (after the shape of the tunnels).

SAO PAULO/BRAZILThe subway system in São

Paulo is the biggest in South America. It is one of the most up-to-date systems in the world. Although there is one

SEOUL/KOREAThe Korean capital’s subway

system is different from others because it is managed by 3 companies. On August, 1974 Seoul Metro, a government-owned corporation, opened the first subway in Seoul. Shortly after, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation (SMRTC) and Metro 9, the first private subway corporation in Korea, made new lines.

All stations have platform screen doors from the platform up to the ceiling, making it safe and impossible to touch the outside of the trains.

Announcements are in Korean, English and, in the main stations, Japanese and Mandarin.

Asuka Yamamoto

SUBWAYS Lifelines of the Metropolis

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Second World War. The next was the University Line (Union Station to St. George Station). The lines have spread little by little. Still now there are plans to construct a new line.

These are just a few examples. There are more subways in the world, and there are various systems. I recommend you use subways when you travel overseas. Maybe you would get know the lifestyle of the country and national traits on the subway.

THE NUMBERS

PARIS/FRANCE

“Metro” comes from French word “Métropolitain”. The stations are beautiful, because the Paris Métro has a creative and elegant style. Art Nouveau Métro entrances were designed by Hector Gruinard. Art Nouveau is an international style of art that became popular at the end of the 19th century. It can be found adorning entrances and interiors. Louvre-Rivoli Station is an especially fine example. There are many replicas of the art in the museum, so you can feel the station is a part of it. Unfortunately, you can’t go to the museum directly now because, when the Louvre Pyramid was built in 1989, direct access moved to the Palais-Royal station. The one weak point is that there are no automatic doors on the subway.

TOKYO/JAPAN

Tokyo subway is the busiest subway in the world. It is managed by 2 organizations.

Opening in December, 1927, it is now managed by Tokyo Metro, a private company jointly owned by the Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). It is very punctual, and manners are very strict. You can’t talk on the phone, eat, or even put on makeup. Even bringing on big baggage is not allowed during the busiest hours. The “Please do it at home” posters have become a well-known feature on the Tokyo subway.

TORONTO/CANADA

It’s easy to use “the Better Way” in Toronto. It is a really simple system. The first line was Yonge (Union Station to the Eglinton Station) built with revenues gained during the

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“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

Friedrich Nietzche

Try to imagine how your life would be if musicians, singers and all that is related with the music world did not exist? Would you live in a muted environment? No rhythm, no melody, no dance, no song, no expressed feelings…

Music connects people through its universal language. You don’t need to understand the language of the song, the culture or country of the artist to interpret and feel what is intended through the sound, rhythm and melody. People are able to recognize the emotions related through music.

In The Music Between Us, philosopher Kathleen Marie Higgins investigates the features of human perception that enable

contents that are posted in these pages can quickly be shared with people from all over the world and sometimes become a huge global success.

A recent example of this viral power is the hilarious and popular “Gangnam Style”. The original video is number one on iTunes, has been viewed over 260 million times, and just last week, became the most “liked” video in YouTube’s history.

Since July 15, when the original video was posted, thousands of different Gangnam Style-inspired videos have been posted by people from various countries in a variety of languages.

This joining movement, reached through the music, give us a positive sensation that, despite of all the differences between countries and cultures apart, we can all be as one when the beat starts. Peace, love and music.

the ability of music to provoke the sense of a shared human experience despite its many different forms across continents and throughout centuries.

Drawing on disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, musicology, linguistics, and anthropology, Higgins’s

researched study showcases the ways music is used in rituals, education, work, healing, and as a source of security and joy.

An important detail about the power of music in terms of joining people from different countries

and cultures is totally related to the Internet and, most specifically, social media. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace are the most popular “tools” with which people share ideas, texts, photos, videos and music. It’s incredible how some creative

MusiConnectionTatiana Sayuri

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Taka, a 24-year-old Japanese student in Toronto, explained to me that the first time a Brazilian girl hugged him, he

was very uncomfortable. In Japan, greetings

are given great

importance, but between students for example, in the morning it's usual to say Ohayõ (good morning). In fact, Japanese culture does not include hugging or intimate physical contact in public. However, a handshake or more traditionally, a bow is fine.

with students from countries all over the world. We are in a diverse world, the world of tomorrow.

In fact, I am learning both English and diversity. I have already learned grammar, public speaking and journalism. My question today is, how do different cultures interact politely?

Globalizing world and cultural diversity

What are these things called globalization and diversity, two very familiar words used since the beginning of human history. As we know, modern globalization started in the 19th century with many steps, but

Leo, a very good Brazilian friend of mine, explain that it's common to wait for friends. Max, another German student, doesn't like waiting for latecomers.

I am from Martinique, a French overseas region in the West Indies. A handshake is normal, but when woman and

man meet it's common to kiss each

cheek.

J a p a n e s e , Brazilian, German, Martiniquan, French ... what is going on? I am learning English at ILSC Toronto, a very amazing place

from 1980 to 2000, the context has engendered uncertainty and rapid change. In fact, it’s like the evolution between a second world war fighter plane and the new fifth-generation US fighter jet. We have a very new globalization with a main challenge: how to manage cultural diversity today and how to prepare for tomorrow.

According to Wikipedia, ‘Globalization is a common term for processes of international integration arising from increasing human activity and interchange of world views, products, ideas, and o t h e r

a s p e c t s of culture. In

particular, advances in transportation and t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s

infrastructure, including the rise of the Internet, represent major driving factors in

Forging Links in a

Globalizing WorldFrantz Georges Sabin

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globalization and precipitate further interdependence of economic and cultural activities’.

Globalization has been shaped by history and by specific characteristics : In the 1980s, the personal computer, fax, Internet, the Berlin wall and South Africa; In the 1990s, the triumph of market ideology, the opening of China and India to foreign investment, the creation of the World Wide Web: In the 2000s, a more interactive Internet, continued growth opportunities in BRIC (See NOTE 1) nations … the world in now flat (See NOTE 2).

The main new characteristics are increasing the speed of change, geographic diversification and consolidation, the business mix changing frequently and job levels fluctuating across countries.

In this context, the website Statistics Canada explains that Toronto’s visible minority population could double by 2031. More than 78% of Toronto’s population could be either immigrants or children born in Canada of immigrant parents by 2031.

The increasing of visible minorities in Toronto and in the majority of cities around the world tell us about the necessity of mastering cultural diversity and particularly "how different cultures interact politely". Greeting and meeting: how to improve the connection

As the majority of us know how communicate fluently on Facebook, we should also learn to communicate across cultural diversity, face to face (I call these Facepeople) it’s about making happy and efficient relationships between people from different cultures.

First at all, the best thing is to really understand the existence of diversity and to be involving in making good relationships and to avoid sending the wrong signals.

If we want and need to improve relationships it’s important to realize that greetings from around the world vary just as much as the culture of which they are a part. For example, in Asia, very little body contact is made between strangers when they first meet. The Japanese will bow, while the people of

south and southeast Asia use the “namaste” greeting (hands in prayer-like position in front of the chest) as a sign of respect. In China, a verbal greeting with a head nod is usually used unless you are familiar with the person. This distance when greeting people is the opposite of what we find in the Central and South American cultures where people hug, kiss and slap each other on the back when meeting. In regions of the world such as west Asia and many Muslim countries, members of the opposite sex do not normally have any physical contact when greeting. This is also true of Orthodox Jews as well.

Finally, body language and eye contact are important to assure interaction on a comfortable level.

Without greeting to interact politely between different cultures, there are other domains to take into consideration, principally gift-giving, seasonal greetings, the art of saying no, comfort foods, birthday greeting, making assumptions and asking about family.

In conclusion, to exchange, travel, study and work today,

we really need to interact politely with people who are from different cultures. In the same way that we might learn a new technology or a new language we should learn to communicate with people from all over the world. It is already a competitive advantage. The subject is vast, complex and very exciting and that why we should continue to study and develop our understanding of cultural diversity.

Note 1 : In economics, BRIC is a grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. It is typically rendered as « the BRICs » or « the BRIC countries » or « the BRIC economies » or alternatively as the “Big Four”.

Note 2 : When Thomas Friedman argues that the world is flat, he means that the global economic playing field is becoming more and more levelled. This means equalizing opportunities ; people from all over the world have more opportunities to connect, collaborate and compete in today’s global economy.

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Where the money went last time...

The May 2012 Journalism Class raised money for St. Stephen’s Community House, a community-based social service agency that has been serving the needs of Kensington Market and surrounding neighbourhoods in downtown West Toronto since 1962..

If you have any ideas for content or charities for future issues of Future Perfect, contact us at futureperfect.editor@gmail.com

...and where your money’s going this

time... For information about where the money for this issue is going, turn to the

back cover.

Handing over the cash, left to right: Bill Sinclair (Associate Executive Director of St. Stephen’s Community House), Future Perfect Issue 4 journalist contributors:Julia Chraïti-Martin, Fuyu Hsieh, Mark Dallas (Editor), and Salem Rady

Charitable Registration Number: 119248789RR0001

October is Canadian Autism Awareness Month

Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life: it is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impacts the typical development of the brain in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Children and adults with autism typically have difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.

Autism Ontario is a charitable organization that relies on generous donations to continue delivering programs and services. Your support makes you a champion, not only of ASD in general, but of the thousands of individuals and families they support in the province of Ontario.