the newspaper my brother works for has increasingly become more concerned with trivial news than with actual topics that foster interesting and challenging debates. though, if you actually read it from a critical point of view, it sometimes gets interesting.

for the past 4 days, pages 1 to 3 have been dedicated to the murder of a 17 year old woman who was working the night shift in a depanneur. it was her first time working that shift apparently and she had dropped out of high school fairly recently.

who did it, why, where are the suspects hiding, what their parents are saying, etc.

columnists formulate questions such as: "should women be allowed to work alone at night in jobs that require contact with the public?"

i mean, that's kind of rhetorical isn't it? any question that starts with "should they..." sort of implies that the writer thinks they should probably not, no? does that mean we also ought to start questioning whether women should be allowed to work in professions that are considered more 'dangerous'. i mean, where do you draw the line really and where does that logic stop?

there are also been questions about the parenting skills of the young woman's mother. "what kind of mother lets her 17 year old daughter work the night shift in a depanneur?" gee, so much for empathy.

it is easy to sit in our respective living rooms and point fingers at different parts of the problem without questioning the inequities in the system that make 17 year old young women drop out of school. that requires her single-mother to grieve and be accused all at once. you never really tackle with the problem.

so... how about this. lets discuss the possible scenarios. why would a 17 year old take on that kind of job?

- fun. i'm quite doubtful.
- money, uh, minimum wage plus 1,00$ an hour.... let me think, uh, no!
- lack of better options? i think we're getting closer.

and this is where we - the easily entertained and distracted masses - come in. how can the alienated youth be convinced that they should care about their present and their future when quite a few of them are reminded, on a daily basis, of the triviality of their existence. why are we so often failing them, shying away from our role to help them become their own solutions, not just problem that pile up on the desk of an overworked school psychologist - that has to divide times between 5 to 7 schools to visit per week.

why do we, as a society, tend to invest more in infrastructure and in technology (brand new PCs!) than in stimulating school curriculum that reach out to kids with different learning styles.

why do engineers make 70 000 $ while teachers and day care workers - the true engineers of our future - sometimes have to work a second job during their first few years to make ends meet.

but, no, let's talk about the suspects. the number of times they stabbed her. the holes in the bullet proof door.

oh! did i forget to ask: what kind of mother would let her child work in a convenience store alone at night?


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self assigned assignment of the week (i think i need more of those): carry my camera around with me.

i can't remember how many times i've said to myself lately, gosh i wish i could take a picture of that. first stop: the laundromat tonight. it should be a fun one.

i should be a bit more consistent with my quote book also. i feel sometimes like life is flying past me undocumented.