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Travel November 19, 2017

Don’t let fear stop you from seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris

While at a recent dinner party, I was asked an interesting question: what’s your favourite city to visit and why do you have a connection with that place? I thought about it for a while and decided on London, which has always felt like home to me. It’s probably my obsession with British fashion and even the depressing weather. I heard other guests reply with places like Manhattan, New York, Tokyo, Japan, and other destinations. I got to thinking to what my answer might have been a few years ago—Paris, France.

France is one of the most popular European countries, with the City of Paris attracting a lot of attention. However, in 2016, the French Tourism Board reported a dip in tourists in the city, with the industry losing almost £644M. This sharp decline was mainly caused by terrorism fears and concerns. France is a country that relies heavily on tourism, with seven per cent of the country’s GDP generated from those sales. Even the Eiffel Tower had about 1 million less visitors last year.

Paris is known as the city of love and, before terrorism became an active concern, it was seen as a peaceful and romantic destination with odd crimes and pick-pockets. French tourism does not look so positive, as a few weeks ago, in the City of Nice, nine people were arrested after a thwarted terror attack.

However, one of the worst things you can do is let fear restrict you from travelling to the places you dream of. We are living in an unpredictable world, but that shouldn’t prevent someone from experiencing other cultures or relaxing with friends and family. Here are four small tips to travel without fear.

Consider your anxiety and don’t let proposed fear outweigh actual concerns. As a tip, maybe stay away from overly populated tourists spots or make sure your valuables are kept safe. Try getting a small lock for your backpack to deter pickpockets.
Know where you’re going. Research the neighbourhoods and know roughly how to get to your destination. Don’t wander down dark streets on your own.
Don’t let regret plague you from missing out on a good trip. At the end of the day, you don’t want to think “Oh, I wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower, but I was too worried about pickpockets”. You will always regret not going to see this iconic and historic marvel. Just do it!
Stop worrying about something that is out of your control. Sometimes, shit happens. Just take every minute as it comes and remember that as long as you are safe, everything else is small potatoes.

Try to venture off the beaten track a bit and explore less popular neighbourhoods in Paris, including Quartier Chinois (Chinatown), Bastille, Canal Saint Martin or Saint-Germain-des-Pres. This way you can soak up all the food, culture, fashion and romance the city has to offer without having to line up for hours with hundreds and thousands of other tourists like you.

Will you be planning you next trip to Paris? Comment below.

News November 9, 2017

The nasty reality of gun control and mass shootings in the US

During 11 a.m. Sunday morning worship, gunshots rang out in the air at the small First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The alleged shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, tried to make his escape, but once cornered, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This event marked the 307^th mass shooting in the United States for 2017.

This is a small number in comparison to 2016, which proved to be even higher at 477 incidents. A mass shooting, in its simplest definition, is the killing of four or more people at the same time. So far, 26 people have died, with the number expected to rise due to severe injuries. As Americans and the world anxiously awaited a response from US President Donald Trump, who is on a five-country Asian tour, more details emerged about the alleged shooter, painting him as volatile, with a history of violence and disgruntled after bing dismissed from the US Air Force.

President Trump’s response to the shooting at a news conference in Japan was direct and once again avoided the broader issue of gun violence by narrowing it down to the events of the tragic shooting.

“This isn’t a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event. A very, very sad event, but that’s the way I view it,” Trump told the room of reporters in Japan.

Trump also made the comment that mass shootings can happen anywhere, while ironically standing in a country with no record of mass shootings and very strict control of gun laws.

This dangerous response may, unfortunately, be similar to what a lot of other Americans are thinking. However, there are some people that are wondering how many mass shootings it will take before the gun control laws in the United States are revisited? A similar response came from the president just last month during the deadly mass shooting in Vegas which killed close to 60 people.

Sadly, hearing about mass shootings in America has become common place. If the situation is not blamed on mental health, it is blamed on terrorism. The bigger issue, which seems to be obvious to everyone else in the world, is the accessibility to guns. The fact that you can buy guns at the same time you do your grocery shopping at Walmart is appalling. Walmart in the United States sells firearms for the aim of ‘hunting or sporting’, but just like animals, guess what— humans can be hunted too.

The debate on gun control in the United States continues as almost half of gun users feel that owning a gun is part of their American identity. However, can we stop narrowing down these tragic events and fight to fix the bigger issue? Because without access to these deadly tools, 26 more lives could have been saved.

While President Trump blames this incident on mental health, in February 2017 he signed a bill undoing the work of former President Barack Obama to prevent those who were mentally ill from purchasing weapons. The bill stated that for those mentally unfit be added to a background check database. In doing this, President Trump had now made it easier for persons with mental illness to purchase weapons. So, is this really a mental illness problem? When will America admit the problem isn’t the people — it’s that all of these people have guns?

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

News November 18, 2015

Time is our biggest ally, Paris a week later

It’s been almost a week since news broke of the shooting and suicide bombing in Paris: 129 dead.

That Friday night, I got home from walking my dog and sat down in front of the television. It was cold outside, and my plan was to snuggle under a blanket and watch something trashy until my family got home. I turned on the television, which automatically tunes in to CP24, and heard the following words: “We still don’t know the condition of the 100 hostages, but our latest report has 30 people dead following the restaurant shooting in Paris. It is still unknown whether the disturbance at the soccer stadium is related.”

I ended up spending the entire night glued to CBC News. My computer was running a live-blog hosted by the Guardian, and my Twitter feed on my phone was lit up in #PrayForParis hashtags.

Simply put: since then, I’ve tried to avoid writing an article about the attack.

I was lost for words, but I also didn’t want to make the same mistakes as some media publications and members of the Twitterverse. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

Paris at night. Photo taken by Katherine DeClerq

It was only two months ago that I was in Paris, joyfully wandering the streets in the City of Lights, breathing in the Parisian lifestyle. It was an amazing experience. I wandered the twisted roads filled with shops and restaurants, drank wine, ate baguettes, visited museums, and saw the Eiffel tower. I got lost a few times, but luckily the people of Paris were nice enough to point me in the right direction. It’s important to know that when I say “people of Paris,” I mean people of every ethnicity. The kindest of them all was a Muslim man who showed us a short cut to the Eiffel tower.

My heart breaks when I hear about the racism and bigotry people are facing because of these terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, and Baghdad. Politicians are screaming at each other for considering allowing refugees—people fleeing the very violence we just experienced—to enter their country. A mother was attacked when picking up her child from school, simply because she wore a hijab; a mosque in Peterborough was set ablaze with a molotov cocktail; and men and women are receiving letters in the mail from neighbours saying, “Canada is no place for immigrants. Go home.” The American media has been particular nasty to the Muslim community, asking them to “take responsibility” for the actions of a few extremists with ties to ISIS.

How is this Canada? How is this France, England, Germany, or the United States?

After a tragic event such as this one, time is our biggest ally. We may live in a 24-hour news cycle world, but that doesn’t mean we should rush to conclusions and continue to spread unfounded fear. Every time a mother is attacked, a mosque destroyed, or a man is falsely accused of being a terrorist, we add fuel to the fire. The people who killed 129 Parisians last Friday want us to turn on one another. They want Muslims to see the rest of the world as racist and islamophobic.

Let’s take some time. Sit back, breathe, and really think about what happened in Paris. Think of your neighbours and friends, some who may not be native to this country. In a world with a population of over 7 billion, there will be bad people. But, let’s not throw everyone with the same religion, skin colour, or beliefs into that categorization. Let’s not turn away those fleeing from violence, just because we are afraid. Chances are, in this political climate, they are more afraid than we are.

After taking a week to figure out how I feel following these tragic events, I’ve decided that I’m not going to #PrayForParis. Instead, I’m going to #PrayForTheWorld: Pray for a world of tolerance and acceptance, where no one feels afraid and everyone knows what it means to be loved. Lets not lose who we are and blindly follow the war cries.

Lets prove that we are better than that.