All about You

I spent 20 minutes last night doing one of the most enjoyable on-line personality tests that I've ever seen.

After being bombarded with too many TV ads, I went to www.eharmony.com to see what it was all about. (I often sign up to these things just to see if I have the nerve to do it and then ditch out after I get two or three "matches" and it then seems too weird.) I don't think internet dating will work for me but I did find this really handy quiz.

Here's the thing ... if you put down anything other than 'single' or 'divorced', they'll tell you, sorry no, they won't match you with anybody. But this is AFTER they let you do the quiz, which takes about 20 minutes.

I was truly surprised by how much they told me that I already knew .. but maybe hadn't phrased in quite the same way to myself. They tell you the positives and the negatives and even the negatives didn't seem too bad.

A few of the things I learned/rediscovered/reconfirmed about myself:
a) Holy heck, am I ever a Libra. And need to balance everything. That makes me come across as warm and friendly much of the time but sometimes cool and aloof when I'm weighing the options.
b) my emotions and intellect are pretty well balanced (after several years of working on it, I must add ...)
c) my extraversion and adventurous spirit is very appealing and some people want to be like me. At the same time, I can also scare people with my over-the-top exuberance and non-conservative perspectives.
d) the best thing was the overall description of me "TAKING CARE OF OTHERS AND TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF - You are important. So are other people, especially if they are in trouble. You have a tender heart, but you know how to establish and keep personal boundaries. You are empathetic and compassionate, but you also believe that it's best if people solve their own problems and learn to take care of themselves, if they are able." I don't think that's always true, but it's something I strive for. With a lot more success in recent years because I've been more aware of the need for boundaries and also to take care of myself.

I also it was really curious that I came out so high on the extraversion scale .. tell you a secret .. I'm really an introvert by nature. Used to hide behind chairs a lot when I was a kid. But a radio producer I once worked with said "radio people are all introverts pretending to be extraverts". Ya, what else can you say about people who go into little rooms to talk to themselves for four hours at a time ...

The link to eharmoney is here. A tip to those of you who are in committed relationships and are worried that it might look to your partner like you're on the prowl ... you can always do it together ... (although don't look over each other's shoulder while you're answering. It would distort the results).

type in 'separated' and they'll let you do the test without getting matched up. The first few questions are all about what kind of partner you're looking for ... there are only five or six of them and you can pretend. It doesn't take long to do that part ... so bear with it until you get past it into the "rate yourself" questions.

I copied all my results and saved them in Word for future reference .. because I don't know if they'll let you come back if you're not.

Have fun with it ... and tell me all about it ...

Flight from Darkness

I just got an email from my friend Percy Paul, who pops up from time to time.

I have never met Percy in person. I met him over email when I was working at Outfront at CBC Radio. Percy sent in a story pitch to do an Outfront piece. At the time, he was proposing that he do a story about what it's like being a brilliant, addicted, bipolar physicist living on a rez in Northern Saskatchewan.

Our first instincts were to say "sure you are, buddy", but the rest of the group said, hey well, maybe there's something to it. And they gave it to me to fill in the details.

We never did Percy's story. Somebody else finally did, and it's going to be broadcast on CBC next week -- next Tuesday and again on Dec. 1 on The Lens. Check it out here.

I don't hear from Percy very much but each time I am glad because it means he's still alive. It's a tough life -- I don't think he's ever gotten his illness or his addiction under control. I did a google search on his name a while back ... and he is what he says he is. Brilliant and in an incredible amount of pain.

He occasionally sends me chapters of the novel that he's working on. It's a combination of confusion and randomness with occasional flashes of perception and beautiful writing.

Much like his life, I suspect. I'm really looking forward to seeing Flight from Darkness and seeing more about this enigmatic person who I've only been able to experience through his novel and his emails.

A Jewel from the Archives

I have finally been getting around to unpacking most of my boxes and settling in. I ran across this, which is wonderful and well worth sharing.

For every girl who is tired of acting weak when she is strong, there is a boy tired of feeling strong when he feels vulnerable.

For every boy who is burdened with the constant expectation of knowing everything, there is a girl tired of people not trusting her intelligence.

For every girl who is tired of being called over-sensitive, there is a boy who fears to be gentle, to weep.

For every boy for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity, there is a girl who is called unfeminine when she competes.

For every girl who throws out her Easybake oven, there is a boy who wishes to find one.

For every boy struggling not to let advertising dictate his desires, there is a girl facing the ad industry's attacks on her self-esteem.

For every girl who takes a step toward her liberation, there is a boy who finds the way to freedom a little easier.

- adapted from a poem by Nancy R. Smith. Distributed by Crimethinc, a dynamic organization not as scary as it sounds. Great work in a wholesome anarchistic kind of way. Check them out.

Writing about Africa

Animals can always be counted on for a good story

I am listening to a sad and funny (dark funny) interview on The Current. Today it's being hosted by Stephanie Nolan, the Globe and Mail reporter based in Africa. She just released a book called "28 Days", about her experience of AIDS.

Her guest was Binyavanga Wainaina, a Kenyan writer now living in Texas. The subject of the interview is "how to do really bad journalism about Africa".

His first tips -- write about poor people. Better still, write about animals. "an elephant provides a really well rounded story line". And "lions have good family values. See how they take care of their children"

I need to listen now to hear what I'm doing wrong ...

* when you need a dark story about human tragedy, look to Africa. Lots to be had.
* saying "I went to Africa ... I care about Africa" -- who cares? Lots of people come to Africa. Big deal.
* many non-functional people end up in Africa because they want to make themselves feel like they're compassionate people
* even literature in Africa was donor-funded literature for a long time ... want to get a grant to write a book? ... apply to western donors for a grant to write a book about AIDS eg. papa, papa, can you tell me about how my aunt tragically got AIDS and how I can make sure I don't?
* interest in Africa isn't always interest in Africa .. it's about interest in markets
* Africa is very fashionable right now, but that doesn't mean that being "fashionable" will translate into economic benefits for African people
* ignore stories like the economy is doing better, there are free elections, tourism is up
* ignore people who are making a positive change and only write about those who are desperate and dying countries

A couple of other points, not necessarily related to Africa:

* being an African living in Texas isn't so bad .. except for the scary insects like tarantulas and obnoxious animals like skunks
* he is commissioning three plays about perceptions of Africa which will be staged in Toronto in 2010 -- but he isn't going to work with the standard theme of "good, good Africa, bad, bad West"
* to be a writer means to be independent. He was nominated for the World Economic Forum's "Young Global Leader" award and he declined because he thought his credibility as a writer will be diminished. His reason, in a letter to

He subsequently declined the award. In his own words:

"I assume that most, like me, are tempted to go anyway because we will get to be ‘validated’ and glow with the kind of self-congratulation that can only be bestowed by very globally visible and significant people,” he wrote. “And we are also tempted to go and talk to spectacularly bright and accomplished people – our “peers.” We will achieve Global Institutional Credibility for our work, as we have been anointed by an institution that many countries and presidents bow down to.

“The problem here is that I am a writer. And although, like many, I go to sleep at night fantasizing about fame, fortune and credibility, the thing that is most valuable in my trade is to try, all the time, to keep myself loose, independent and creative…it would be an act of great fraudulence for me to accept the trite idea that I am “going to significantly impact world affairs." (quote from Wikipedia)

You can read an entire article "How to Write About Africa" here. It's brilliant.

So how many of his points I am I guilty of? Probably all of them to some degree. But I try hard not to. And I tend to spell African names wrong. But I doublecheck.

A couple of excerpts from Binyavanga Wainaina's web story: (because it's too good not to quote:

"Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular."

And my favourite:

"If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed."

Where I've lived

My friend Flora just did a tally of all the places she's lived. I'll bet I've lived more places than you, Flora! Here's my list:

Hamilton Ontario - Queen St. S.
out of my suitcase - Vancouver, south Asia
Hamilton Ontario - Victoria Ave. S.
Wise, Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains
Ottawa - side street in Nepean
Ottawa - Fisher Avenue
Hamilton - Stinson St.
Toronto - Indian Grove
Sharon Ontario - Mount Pleasant Rd.
Mount Albert Ont - Centre Rd.
Toronto - 109 Niagara St (artist warehouse in an old coffin factory)
Toronto - 144 Eileen Ave.
Vancouver - W. 12th Ave.
Vancouver - another apartment on west 12th
Vancouver - a co-op house on w. 12th
Vancouver - a co-op house on West 16th.
Windsor - Sandwich St.
Windsor - further down Sandwich St.
Windsor - Indian Road with the Atkinsons
travelled to England
Windsor - Partington Ave.
Windsor - Pitt St. W.
Windsor - another apartment on Pitt St. W.
Essex - Kelly St.
Windsor - Laurier Hall University of Windsor
Essex - Talbot St. E.
Harrow Ontario - 7th Concession
Ruscom Ontario - tiny farming village where my ancestors settled.

So there you go. Twenty nine places in half a century. I don't think I have lived more places than Flora. Of course, if I counted the number of couches I've slept on, especially in the last three years, I win!

The Future is Radio 2.0

I have been looking for a way to describe the convergence which is happening between radio and the internet. There is a big shift underway which is somewhat about radio, somewhat about the internet ... the bottom line being that something is changing and I couldn't define what it is.

Today I got a post from an international development radio colleague of mine called Local Radio 2.0. And finally I got the description/term I was looking for.

It comes from the term Web 2.0, which is the phrase referring to the new interactive capabilities of the internet as demonstrated by sites like Facebook, myspace and other social networking sites. It refers to a more general phenomena -- as Internet guru Wayne MacPhail so aptly puts it "the internet is now a conversation". And the internet allows all of us to contribute to the dialogue about the ongoing progress of the world ... we are not just passive consumers of information. We are producers.

The internet is also turning radio into a conversation. The biggest thing is that we can all create our own radio stations, and our own audio content. We can do podcasts, we can have shoutcasts, we can post sounds and images of ourselves. The internet is our transmitter.

How this will affect the transmitters we have come to know ... and the radio stations that use them ... remains to be seen. If you turn on the radio right now, you won't hear that it's significantly different than it was fifteen years ago. That is going to change, though. I don't have my crystal ball (or my crystal transmitter) handy so I am not yet hearing what that's going to mean. But it will mean something, and that something will be huge. The change may be quick, it may take place over a long time.

All I know is that we in traditional radio have to start thinking laterally and start to think of radio as the conversation that the internet is becoming.

If you want more food for thought about this, there is a conference in Kuala Lumpur in December addressing some of these issues. You can find the information on the site of the World Electronic Media Forum.

Needless to say I would LOVE to go. But I can't go anywhere for a bit .. meanwhile, I just got an invitation to speak in Norway in March ... Malaysia will have to wait for now.