The University of Winnipeg Collegiate The Communicator Communicator February 2016.pdf · The University of Winnipeg Collegiate The Communicator Messi goes home with his Ballon d’Or?!

The University of Winnipeg Collegiate

The Communicator

Messi goes home with his Ballon d’Or?! (page 7) Syrian refugees find a home in Winnipeg (page 9) “This I Believe” Contest, and the winners are...? (page 3) Paris climate change summit: As effective as we think? (page 10)

February2016Edition

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The Communicator is… The University of Winnipeg Collegiate’s newspaper,

made by students for students. EDITORS: Rabia Ahmad Aisha Ali Noor Ethawi CONTRIBUTERS: Annika Lukacs Bianca Dubois CLUB ADVISOR: Isabela Dueck ART CONTRIBUTERS: Cover: Etienne Rutkowski On right: Sarah Snider Letter from the Editor(s)… Good students and peers, It is an incredible honour and privilege to have

been able to write and share The Communicator with everyone. Last year this was not possible, but with our strong efforts, this year we have made it possible to share both local and international affairs with our peers.

This year, our fantastic advisor, Isabela Dueck, gathered at first a strange group of different individuals who may or may not have stayed to see the club through to the end. However, bit by bit, her excitement and enthusiasm rubbed off on us as well. Now, each one of us is absolutely delighted to be a part of this little piece of ours.

This edition covers some important issues going on in our world and country such as the United Nation’s Climate Change conference which was held in Paris. It also discusses what is happening to the Syrian refugees who are fleeing their country, some of which who have settled in Canada.

In our school, there was recently a contest held by the Newspaper Club (us!) called the ‘This I

Believe’ contest where any student part of The Collegiate could enter. Participants had to state what they believed in and explain its importance. The winners’ entries have been included in this edition. They are all well written and thought-provoking articles.

This first edition of ours will discuss big issues not only going on in our city, but of what is happening around the globe.

Happy reading!


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‘This I Believe’ Contest: The Winners are…? Rabia Ahmad

It was extremely difficult to narrow down the winners. All of the entries were extremely well done and seem to have taken a considerable amount of time and effort to put together. Some are inspiring; some are simply fun to read. All in all, these articles really demonstrate what Collegiate students are capable of.

We hope other students enjoy reading these as much as we did and we give our heartfelt congratulations to the winners.

The Four Voices Jerald Glenn Rey (Allen) – First Place Winner I believe in four things: Justice, Love,

Honesty, and Hope. These beliefs are like little voices in my head.

Justice says that people should receive consequences for everything. How will people learn otherwise, right? Love is always patient, kind, understanding, trusting, honest, and is always willing to forgive and forget. Justice can never seem get along with Love; they simply don’t agree with one another.

Honesty tolerates both Love and Justice since

they each share similar a value: truth. For Justice to operate correctly and fairly there must be full transparency. With Love it’s the same thing. Affection isn’t genuine and real without true feelings to begin with (excuse the mushiness, but that’s the case right?).

While Love and Justice’s values seem to

clash, they actually create a balance. In Justice’s pursuit for retribution, Love is a reminder that debts can be paid without punishment. When Love becomes blind in either selflessness or selfishness, Justice is always there and eager to slap some sense into anyone. In the background, Honesty leaves no stone unturned, making sure all is in order.

Even further behind the scenes, Hope waits

silently. Waiting for the moment it’s needed. Hope states, “I can only be a light in the dark if the sun isn’t there.” The moment all things go south and the three beliefs stall in the air, Hope swoops in and – with a fair share of luck – saves the crew from crashing. The sad part is, Hope is only recognized briefly for the great actions, and then it slowly fades back until it’s forgotten.

Now that that idea is finally force-fed into

your mind, I can get to the story . . . kind of. I won’t give you the gory details.

I, like many others, felt the sting of betrayal

on more than one occasion. I felt a twisted sense of Justice where I felt only hatred and my shattered trust. My Love wasn’t only just blind, but deaf and burned to the point where it didn’t know what to feel; forgiveness, for some reason, wasn’t an option. It was the last line of defense. Honesty was shocked. It was stunned because there wasn’t a piece of evidence to comfort either Love or Justice. I was in the air stalling.

Then, out of nowhere, Hope took control.

Hope told Honesty that there were more stones to turn, reminded Love how divine it was to love, and knocked sense into Justice asking, “What is judgment without a trial?” I’m no longer stalling, but gaining altitude. So whenever I’m in doubt, I raise a question, “Which one of you guys do I need?”


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The Classics Josh Thatcher – Second Place I believe in suits. Suits distinguish, inspire

and inform others. They distinguish their wearers from the many common-clothed people; they inspire the people around their wearer of what their wearer believes; they inform others of their wearer's personality.

I've loved suits ever since the 3rd grade. It

was picture day, and in previous years I had worn common clothes, but there was something about that day which made me put on my single, ill-fitting suit. I had acquired the suit a few months earlier for a family wedding, and hated how it felt, which made me shove it to the back of my closet as soon as I got home.

Maybe it was the fact that this was the first

time I had been with a group of new children since Kindergarten which possessed me to put it on. All I know with certainty is that when I got to school that day, I had never received more compliments in all my life, from students and teachers alike. One compliment in particular has stood out for me over these years; when handing in an assignment, my teacher said 'thank you, Mr. Thatcher'. That, I believe, was

when I first realized the intrinsic value and plain greatness that each suit holds.

After that, although I could not afford to buy

any new suits, I wore that one suit as often as possible without being seen as having only one outfit. It wasn't until the 8th grade, however, that I was finally able to muster the finances necessary to have an all-suit wardrobe. I wore a suit nearly every single day of that grade, and it was my best year of school yet. I plan to wear to do the same for this year, and every year after this one.

In short, I believe in the power of suits; it is a

belief that is central to my identity on both a personal and public level. I apologize if I have offended anyone who has not found the joy and enlightenment possible only through suits.

Tolerance Eniola Adepoju – Third Place

Growing up in a multi ethnic country where

tribal sentiments shroud one’s sense of humanity is the worst thing to have ever happened to me. My experience has formed for me an austere sense of tolerance for people. Tolerance, is my guiding light in the darkness that illuminates this world of man’s inhumanity to man. Tolerance, this I believe, will further human civilization in peace, love and most importantly, development.

I grew up in the remote northern part of a

third world African country, Nigeria. My country had been plagued for many years by corruption, tribalism, political instability and religious violence since its independence. All these had produced a people who are driven more by selfish and personal desires than collective tolerance for one another.


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My philosophy of tolerance is a product of

my personal experience. On the 19th of June 2009, members of my extended family and I were caught up in a maze of tribal violence in the north. My cousin died for no crime other than being a boy from the southern tribe who excelled academically in the north. My sojourn to this strange land was to find a place where I will be a hermit. Ironically, it became a place where my philosophy was discovered and crystallized in my heart. Canada is a land of tolerance, thousands of miles away from my fatherland Nigeria.

Therefore, my guiding light, tolerance, will

always be an extension of me: tolerance for other races, people, beliefs and values. This is what I believe.

The Power of Music Rebekah Smith – Honourable Mention My brother in-law was diagnosed with

cancer at the age of 17. He was in his prime in high school, honor student on all of the sports teams, very healthy and then out of nowhere cancer appeared. He battled cancer for years and he continued to fight for his life. But a big part of his recovery was due to music. When he was in pain or having any kind of physical or mental problems he would listen to music and it would take him to a different place. One where he could escape all that was going on in the world, in his life.

Today he says that if he hadn’t had music he

would probably would not be present right now telling me about this now. Jonathan is one of the most joyful, and funny people I have ever met in my life and I love him to pieces. This summer I spent a month in Montreal with my sister and Jonathan and while their uncle Ed and aunt Marva (Jon’s parents) showed me some videos and pictures of when Jonathan was getting his treatment for cancer. Seeing him like that was so painful and I was heartbroken. He looked so skinny, not at all like the muscular brother I had known. I had never seen in such a fragile state before, but when I would remember the parts of the video where he would be lying on his hospital bed with his big headphones on and rapping and singing to himself, it put a smile on both my face and his.

Jonathan conquered cancer at age 21 and

there is no chance of it coming back, he is now 30 and healthy, because of his battle with cancer and the experiences that he had all due to music one might be able to easily guess what he is doing with his life. Jonathan is a successful singer song-writer (that isn’t his only job he has a office job that he got after going to McGill for years). But interims of His music career he is about to release his new album with Kendrick Lamar.

Jonathan is definitely one of the major role

models in my life. That is because all that he has gone through and accomplished and still staying so positive and humble throughout all of it, he never giving up, he fought. I am so proud that I can call him my brother. It is because of his story and some of my own personal experiences why I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF MUSIC.


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Criticism: Good or Bad? Jacob Bajus – Honourable Mention I believe that people should always be open

to criticism, as long as it is constructive. There is never really a time in my life when I know everything about anything and it really does pay to listen to what other people have to say about it, even if it is just experiencing some else’s perspective.

It is often someone who sees a problem differently that gives the most useful advice and eventually leads you to the solution. I can’t tell you how many times I have been working on a problem, be it academic or otherwise, where I would be looking at it the wrong way and was too stubborn to even consider asking for help or to take the advice of others.

Think of it this way, the only downside for listening to someone’s advice or criticism is that you will be told something you already know; a pretty small inconvenience for what you can learn. When I do math for example, I like to figure a lot of things out by myself and make my own processes to do those operations that I am comfortable with, but which may not be very efficient in terms of time.

Just having someone come up to you and say something like “Why don’t you just do it this way, it’s easier” is absolutely invaluable advice often and I will never have seen it before, because I didn’t look at the problem in that light. On the contrary, if I were too stubborn to even consider someone else’s advice, I would probably still be trying to work through the

almost convoluted processes I came up with to solve a problem that is really quite easy when you see it in a different light.

The only thing about the criticism is that it absolutely must be constructive, your criticism does no good if it is just something along the lines of, “You’re bad at this, even though it’s really easy” this will do no one any good. In fact, it often does more harm than good because it just hurts their self-esteem. I think if more people listen to other people’s criticism and maybe gave some of their own, then it is much easier to improve and learn from your mistakes; all you need is a different perspective.

Once again, our sincere congratulations to the

winners and honourable mentions.


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Ballon d’Or 2015 Noor Ethawi

The FIFA Ballon d’Or has been an annual

football (soccer) award given to the world’s best male player by the football association, FIFA, since 2010. It is awarded based on the votes from international representatives from media, and from national team coaches and captains. This is considered the most prestigious individual award that a player can receive in the world of football.

The award is given at the end of a festival which is usually held in the January of every year. During the festival, multiple awards are presented including the Player of the Year, Women’s Player of the Year, Men’s and Woman’s World Coach, the Puskàs Award (given for the best goal), and the FIFPro World XI.

The Ballon d’Or Award

The 2015 Ballon d’Or festival was filled with smiles, laughter and tears as the winners were announced on January 11th, 2016. The evening started off with announcement of the best 11 players of the year in men’s football. The goalkeeper was unsurprisingly Germany’s own Manuel Neuer, who was also winner of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Andres Iniesta of Spain, Luca Modric of Croatia and France’s Paul

Pogba were voted as the best midfielders of the year. The three winning forwards were announced as Lionel Messi (Argentina), Neymar Jr. (Brazil) and last but not least Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal). These three forwards were also the finalists for the Best Player of the Year.

After the title for Best Coach in Women’s Football was given to Jill Ellis, on the men’s side, FC Barcelona’s coach Luis Enrique was the one to steal the prize and deservingly so, considering his club won 5 trophies last season.

The Fair Play Award was dedicated to the clubs and associations who have been helping refugees across the world. Later on, perhaps the most emotional event of the evening took place where the 27 year old Wendell Lira was overcome with emotion after his surprise Puskàs Award win over his opponent, Lionel Messi who is considered by some to be the favourite.

A few moments later, Carli Lloyd also struggled to hold back her tears as she was named Women’s Football Player of the Year. “It is an honour”, she said as she expressed her gratitude. For the finale, the Argentinian and FC Barcelona player Lionel Messi stole the show and the Ballon d’Or. He now has 5 of those trophies, which are more than any other player.

Messiholdshisawardproudlyatthefestival


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Sustainable Development: What we are doing Annika Lukacs Sustainable development is defined as being

economic development without the depletion of natural resources.

During my first few months at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, I noticed lots of innovative technology that benefits the environment. For example I noticed how the University has a bike repair stop and a large bike parking area which makes it easily accessible for people to bike to school instead of driving. I also noticed some of the water fountains had a function to fill up a water bottle so students can use re-usable water bottles instead of wasting plastic ones. After seeing this technology it made me wonder what else the university was doing toward sustainable development. What is the University of Winnipeg really doing to make the campus stop the depletion of natural resources?

The University of Winnipeg’s sustainability strategy has been working towards following the guidelines of STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System).

STARS is a frameworks structure that evaluates the progress of university and college initiatives towards sustainable development. STARS has developed a rating system as follows: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. There is a minimum amount of points to be scored to be placed into a category. The minimum amount of points for bronze is 25, 45 points for silver, 65 for gold, and 85 for platinum. The University of Winnipeg currently scores 57.12 points, which means the University of Winnipeg ranks as silver. School ranking is based off of academics, engagement, operations, planning & administration, and innovation.

Some of the University

of Winnipeg’s goals for improvement are targeted towards greenhouse gases, energy, water, and waste reduction. The goals set are towards attaining a gold rating in the STARS scoring framework. The University of Winnipeg has worked to become a sustainable campus through their set goals, but further improvements can be made.


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The Paris Summit: Another Kyoto? Aisha Ali

In 1997, world leaders gathered in Japan and reached an agreement called the Kyoto Protocol, which required that countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions to 5% 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. On paper, this sounds like a huge step towards the fight against climate change, but when you consider some of the facts, it sounds a bit less glamorous, considering that this exempted “undeveloped” countries. Countries such as India and China, which accounted for most of the world’s pollution, were not included in the Kyoto Protocol, and many developed countries did not take part. Australia refused to ratify the treaty and countries such as Canada and United States renounced the treaty. More recently, world leaders have gathered in Paris for the COP21. So far, 195 nations have participated in the treaty. This, once again, sounds like a huge step towards the fight against climate change but how effective will it be?

The COP21 Paris deal aims to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial standards while the aspirational goal is 1.5 degrees Celsius and to achieve net 200 emissions by the second half of the century. This does not include aviation and shipping, both of which contribute greatly to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Transportation is not the sole source of carbon emissions and treating it as such is detrimental to the fight against global warming. Also, the farming industry is the second highest producer of carbon emissions, which should be taken into consideration.

The biggest complication of the COP21 Paris deal is that the targets are not binding,

which means that countries are not legally obligated to honour the treaty. This poses a problem because the Kyoto Protocol was also not legally binding. If the Kyoto Protocol was legally binding, countries might have actually stuck to their commitments. Currently, the Kyoto Protocol has been extended to 2020 after a 2012 conference in Doha, Qatar. The international community should not be surprised if many countries do not honour the treaty. Setting ambitious environmental goals could cause countries to lose out economically to other countries that are not so eager about the COP21 Paris deal. If countries decide that the Paris deal is not in their best interests, there is no harm done (theoretically) since the treaty is not legally binding.

The Paris deal has the potential to be the next stepping stone in reducing carbon emissions, but in the midst of the overexcited media and hopeful leaders, a bit of realism is necessary. The Paris deal, though it has potential, leaves out many key issues. The treaty needs more improvement before it can actually be considered effective. After all, we don’t want another Kyoto.

Worldleadersgathertodiscussclimatechangeandtherisenglobaltemperaturethathasnowbroken

records


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Job Opportunities for Syrian Refugees Bianca Dubois

In these past six months, thousands of Syrian refugees have arrived to Canada in hopes of finding a brighter and safer future for both and their children and themselves. Canada has promised to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. They have been divided throughout the country and over a hundred have settled in Winnipeg. However, the refugees are finding it to be a challenge because they cannot find work since they cannot speak English.

The refugees all want to get on the work force straight away to start supporting their families, which is perfectly understandable. However, immigration agencies are encouraging them to learn English first. This is so that they are fluent in the native language of this country and are able to communicate with the majority of the

Canadian population. Also, past immigrants who waited to learn English tended to struggle with it more than those who learned it right away. The refugees have to be constantly reminded that they can receive up to a year of financial help (which is the equivalent of what Canadian Welfare recipients collect). Even so, the Syrian refugees are still itching to work since they do not want to continue being a “burden”.

Even Syrian refugees who speak English realize that finding a job, especially in their preferred field, will be very challenging. Yervant Chopurian, a twenty-four year old electrical engineer is one of the lucky few immigrants that are fluent in English. Chopurian has been looking around for jobs with no luck. Nevertheless, he and other refugees who are in the same situation remain hopeful that a job will present itself to them if they keep on trying. However, it may be a long wait for them to find a source of income because of the unemployment rate for those who have been in Canada for less than five years is double than those native to Canada. Only after ten years does the unemployment gap even out. Hopefully, the refugees will decide to learn English and find jobs accordingly.

NewlyarrivedrefugeesholdasignattheWinnipegJamesArmstrongRichardsonInternationalAirport


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This is the End! If you are interested in contacting the

club, please speak to Mrs. Dueck.

Hope you enjoyed!

Documents

The University of Winnipeg Collegiate The Communicator Communicator February 2016.pdf · The University of Winnipeg Collegiate The Communicator Messi goes home with his Ballon d’Or?!