Edward Lear's nonsense poem "The Jumblies" is among the most lighthearted pieces of poetry in history, describing a group of playful creatures who go to sea in a sieve. But could there be a deeper meaning to this poem?
Author: agarwhale
Our Totalitarian Education System
Replace the proletariat with mindlessly subordinate children, replace Room 101 with an ordinary classroom featuring routine torture branded as “education”, replace telescreens with the watchful eyes of cutthroat administrators, and the dystopian regime of 1984 is recreated every day in the ordinary school.
Is University Truly the Yardstick of Success?
This problem is not limited to the sins of Becky from Full House: Just because we don’t pay off our admissions officers, it doesn’t mean we haven’t bought into the message that Ivy League universities are the goal of life and getting into them is key to success.
The Dichotomy of Development
Developed or developing? It’s very tempting to utilise this simplistic dichotomy as a worldview and as a means of analysing social and geopolitical issues. I’m certainly guilty of using these labels myself. However, the truth is that the world doesn’t fit neatly into these two boxes of progress and that to use these labels may hinder our ability to solve global issues.
Halting Military Sales to Saudi Arabia
Since March of 2015, conflict in Yemen has left an estimated 2.2 million people without resources, without family, without a place to call home, making Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. Despite being a champion of human rights globally, Canada continues to fuel Saudi’s horrific atrocities against human rights through arms deals, which is both deeply damaging and hypocritical. To be respected as a human rights leader globally and to preserve the foundations of basic moral decency, it’s imperative that Canada stop giving arms to Saudi Arabia.
My Dental Adventures: Extraction of the Wisdom Teeth
As I sat in the chair and an oxygen tube was jammed up my nose, I pondered the logistics of getting four teeth forcibly carved out of my mouth.
Raisins: the Antagonists of the Culinary World
If grapes are Jesus (which they’re not), raisins are Satan. If grapes are Chandler, raisins are Janice. If grapes are Harry Potter, raisins are Dolores Umbridge -- let’s face it, we all thought Umbridge was more annoying than Voldemort.
Vaccination in the Western World
In the year 2010, the deadliest American outbreak of whooping cough in fifty years occurred in California. Ten infants lost their lives as a result of this horrifying incident, and many more contracted the disease and suffered serious symptoms. When we picture low vaccination rates, we form a visual picture of some far-off developing country that lacks resources and education, but we don’t consider that often this is a reality in places much closer to home.
The Game of Life: China’s Social Credit System
In the popular television series The Good Place, Eleanor Shellstrop goes to heaven, aka the Good Place. She enters her utopic house, and finds a machine which has recorded every single action in her entire life, and assigned it positive or negative points. The total point value, she is told, has determined whether or not she ended up in heaven. It was 2014 when the People’s Republic of China first announced that they would be implementing a novel type of class system: the social credit system.
The Dark Side of Girl Guide Cookies
When that adorable six-year old in a sash comes to your door selling delicious sugary treats every year, who could possibly say no? Well, it turns out that you probably should.
