My New Obsession...

I am in the midst of exams right now, so I’m very busy, but I want to share this amazing song with you!

Last week on CBC Radio 2 I heard a song by poet Shane Koyczan. He recited his poem We Are More at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremonies and is now my favourite poet!

I am obsessed with his song This is My Voice which isn’t the same poem that I heard on CBC, but is off the same CD and I think is better!

I hope that you like it as much as I do!

G20 Police Presence to Exceed Vancouver Olympics

At the G20 Summit in Toronto this year a "small army" is being brought in to protect the leaders of the world's 20 most powerful countries from rowdy protesters. However, this protection seems to have backfired as now more people are protesting because of the high security in downtown Toronto! A three meter high, 3.3 kilometer long fence with ring the convention centre in downtown Toronto and anyone who lives or works inside the fenced off area will have to enter through security checkpoints.
“This is Toronto and not Tiananmen Square,”activist Greg Thomas said speaking to a group of protesters, “We are asking if body bags are included in that billion-dollar security package.”
Another expense that has been causing quite the uproar is a 1.9 million dollar fake lake that will be built inside the convention centre. This lake is being built so that the leaders of the G20 countries can experience Canada in the safety of the air conditioned convention centre without having to go outside into the crazy streets of Toronto and the terribly dangerous country of Canada. Isn't Ontario called "lake country" or something like that, according the the wikipedia article about Ontario, that province has over 250, 000 lakes!!! So is it really necessary to build an expensive man-made lake when there are thousands of free lakes all around you?
All in all, I think that the G20 summit in Toronto is a bit outrageous. All I can say is that I'm glad that I went to Toronto two weeks ago, before all this craziness started, and that I was able to see the CN Tower without having to go through a security checkpoint!

My Experience Doing the Barefoot Challenge

I have so far survived the challenge this year, but it's still not over! I still have to go and see my physiotherapist tonight in barefeet.

The rest of the day was quite successful though, a whole bunch of other people from my school also went barefoot for the challenge! To start the day off, I rode my bike to school with barefeet, which was actually quite challenging. The bike pedals were digging into my feet and the bumpy roads of Edmonton didn't really help. School wasn't much of a challenge in barefeet, since we pretty much just sit there all day... gym was a different story though. We had gym outside today and running outside on the rocky, bumpy ground was kind of hard on the feet. The grass was nice though, and once you got used to it, it was fine. However, at lunch I definitely saw the negative side effects of going barefoot. A classmate of mine accidentally slammed a door into my foot and now I have a big blood blister on my big toe. It doesn't actually hurt that much... but it's just kinda gross!

After getting the blood blister, I saw how much going barefoot can effect someones life. For the people who can't afford shoes, this can actually be quite dangerous, especially in the environment that they may be living in!

I felt that through this challenge people were educated about the lives of people living in poorer, developing countries. After doing this challenge, I hope that many other teens will realize how lucky they are just to have the basic necessities like shoes.

Barefoot Challenge 2010

This year I have successfully convinced my principal to let me go barefoot for Bilaal Rajan's barefoot challenge. I am going barefoot for one day, today, to raise poverty awareness.
Today is also International Children's Day and Bilaal Rajan is encouraging as many people as he can to kick of their shoes to feel what it's like to not be able to afford shoes.

I printed off a poster for the challenge and then pinned it onto my back before getting ready to bike to school barefoot!
I will be adding more information after school about how my day going barefoot went and felt like, so stay tuned!
For more information about Bilaal Rajan's barefoot challenge, visit http://makingchangenow.com/