And the Flight is Booked!

Okay so get this, we just got an email announcing that our flights have been booked! I will be leaving the Toronto Pearson International airport at 12:15 PM on September 9^th and arriving in Korea at 3 PM the following day (This is including the time difference, but in all honesty, I can barely do the 5 hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver so I really have no idea how I am going to pull this one off). We’re leaving Korea at 7:30 PM on September 10^th, and should reach Hanoi at 10 PM! I wish time travel existed so I can just fast forward my life to the day of the flight. I know that it is probably just the excitement talking because I am going to want to enjoy every minute in Canada before the departure! That, and I still have a lot left to look forward to before going away, including a couple friends’ weddings, a potential trip to Calgary, a trip to Cuba with my girlfriends, and just going back to Vancouver to see the family! It seems so surreal that the whole reason I chose to go to Waterloo in the first place is right around the corner. If it weren’t for Vancouver’s rainstorms and the power outage in my house back in November 2008, I don’t know if I would be sitting here today in the St. Paul’s boardroom working on this blog post. For those of you who know me, that reference will make sense, but for those who don’t, I promise to explain myself soon in another blog postJ. Right now I really should be studying for my upcoming midtermL.

Take care friends!

-Madiha

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

I am a huge fan of fashion, beauty, trends, experimenting with different products, and discovering new ways to dress and accessorize. In North America, we have a particular idea of what “beauty” is. We invest in cosmetics, hair styling irons, keep up with the latest trends, and groom ourselves by shampooing our hair, moisturizing our skin, shaving, doing hair removal treatments (shout out to my brown girls), and more.  These are the beauty ideals of our world, and honestly, a lot of us follow these trends to be considered socially acceptable. The quote, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” means that something is beautiful, depending on the person who is observing it. Sure, we have our ideals in North America of what beauty is, but this got me thinking about the practices in different countries, and what is considered to be beautiful there. Surely, what we find to be beautiful in Canada (or in other parts of North America for that matter) will not be the same as what is found to be beautiful in Kenya, Jamaica, Fiji, or China! I read up some articles, and these are the most fascinating beauty ideals from around the world that I came across:

1) Ancient China – Foot Binding: 
Though this practice has long been outlawed in China, it is certainly one of the most interesting ones I read about! It began in the late T’ang dynasty and girls as young as three years old would begin the foot binding process. Foot binding achieved an ideal three inch lotus foot, much to the appreciation of Chinese men from that era who had a fetish with tiny feet.  Bound feet also displayed a high social status; families who could afford not to have their daughters work were desirable to marry into. However, poorer families also adopted this practice in hopes that their daughters would marry high on the social ladder and soon the practice spread widely throughout the country. The process was a rather painful one; the girl’s toes would be fractured and forced against her soles to achieve a concave figure. The feet were then wrapped tightly with bandages, hindering their growth so that even in adulthood, the feet remained the desired size. You can imagine the detrimental health effects that resulted from this practice! 

2)    Burma and Thailand – Brass Neck Rings:

The Padung sub-group of the Karen people in Northwestern Thailand (close to the Burmese border) observes beauty in the form of thick brass coils wrapped around a woman’s neck. These brass rings create the illusion of an elongated neck as the weight of the rings presses onto the upper ribs and collar bone in such a way that it appears to be part of the neck. There are many reasons why this practice is said to be performed, but the most popular is that it is alluring to men and an incentive for them to marry a woman. Girls as young as five begin the process and as they grow older, they add more rings.

3) South Africa & Jamaica– Curvier Women

     There are some countries where curves are adored! Such a positive and healthy step forward for women right? However, in South Africa this fetish has gotten a bit carried away and may not necessarily be healthy after all. In post –Apartheid South Africa (1990’s), western culture had a bit of an influence on women; skinny bodies were desired and women went to great extents such as eating disorders to achieve them. It wasn’t until the AIDS epidemic in the 90’s that the thin body image was associated with being sick, and ultimately, became less desirable. Today, having meat on your bones in South Africa is sought-after so heavily that naturally thin women overeat to pack on the pounds. South Africa is spiraling towards obesity, which in turn leads to diabetes (both type I and type II), coronary heart disease, and even cancers. 

     In Jamaica, curves are also welcome but more so for the reason that Jamaican dance styles involve vigorous hip movements and shaking what you got! 

4)  New Zealand – Ta Moko:

Ta Moko is tattoo art (drawn on the face), that was once greatly practiced in New Zealand by the Maori people. The tattoos represented many aspects of an individual's identity including rank, geology, and even tribal history; they were also a form of identification in the sense that an individual knew his tattoo design by heart. Each intricate line, spiral, or twirl in the design had a significant representation and it was believed that displaying Ta Moko art greatly enhanced one’s physical appearance. The decline in the practice can be attributed to the settlement of the early European colonizers in New Zealand who were able to influence the younger generation of Maori people into thinking the practice was vulgar. Today, Ta Moko is still done by some people; however without the same skill and research that was once the pinnacle of the practice.

Now that I’ve discussed some of the beauty ideals around the world that stood out to me, I would love to read about what you think and if this post inspired you to do further research about any of these practices! Also, if you know of any other fascinating beauty ideals from other cultures, maybe even one that you are a part of, please leave a comment below! The world is a huge place with numerous countries and cultures, all of which observe different practices – beauty is evident in all of them!

The Five Pillars of Success

Inspirational words from Delatorro McNeal. Follow your passion, and release your full potential with everything you've got to achieve your dreams; that is where true success comes from, and it WILL see that you make it to the top.

You Are What You Eat

I was a vegetarian for about five years; from October 2005 to July 2010 to be exact. I converted when I was in grade 8 because of a video my home economics teacher showed us in class and basically, the horrific images of dying chickens and cows in slaughterhouses was pretty hard to handle for my 13 year old self; I converted right then and there. It’s funny because I remember bringing a turkey sandwich to school that day for lunch and I couldn’t even eat one bite! Certainly, my reasons for becoming a vegetarian back in the day were a bit naive and now that I am more educated about the world, I am debating whether to choose that lifestyle again, however this time I plan not to stop at strictly vegetarianism but go beyond that by learning where my food comes from, and choosing organic and local produce.

Have any of you ever watched the documentary Food Inc.? Here is a little Synopsis: Food Inc. is an American documentary released in 2008, and directed by Robert Kenner, a renowned filmmaker. This movie examines the multi – billion dollar food industry, focusing particularly on the United States. This film touches on corporate farming, unhealthy food production of agribusinesses, industrial meat production, and even industrial grain and vegetable production. It discusses the lack of environmental sustainability and the lack of transparency of this industry and how the first and foremost goal of major food companies is to supply food at cheaper costs, even if it means jeopardizing the consumers’ health. What really riles me is the way that food products in supermarkets are marketed – packaged with pictures of farmhouses and pastures with grazing animals, when in reality these products didn’t really come from a farm; they came from a factory.

Factory farms also known as “facilities Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)” are the breeding grounds for most of our produce these days (chicken, beef, eggs and milk to name a few). To ensure an exponentially fast growth of livestock, and to save costs, something called “animal feed” has been designed. Common ingredients in this feed include unhealthy amounts of grain, plastic and even meat of same species animals many of which perished due to diseases; basically, no real vegetation or grass (food these animals are biologically designed to eat) are being consumed. On top of animal feed, livestock are given copious amounts of hormones and antibiotics. Factory farms also produce excessive amounts of waste which is not managed properly, and leads to the contamination of air and water. Contaminated water from CAFOs can find its way to groundwater, or even disturb the aquatic ecosystems (Source: http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/). The conditions of these farms are so unhygienic that diseases are common among the livestock; how can they not be considering multiple animals are cooped up in a small space for their entire life. It is interesting to think that the feed these animals consume, the diseases they develop, and the bacteria that are housed in them eventually make their way into our bodies when we eat something like a Big Mac or frozen chicken nuggets from the grocery store.


The unsanitary conditions of industrial farming, among many other reasons, is why I am contemplating returning to the vegetarian lifestyle, but more importantly choosing produce that come from local and small farms (other reasons include leaving a smaller eco footprint – did you know that the average food product travels about 1500 miles to get to our grocery stores? [Source: http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/action], consume lower on the earth’s energy budget, and I suppose deep down, the video I saw in eighth grade still has some sort of effect on me). The University of Waterloo hosts a farmer’s market every year and I haven’t taken much advantage of it during my time in this city. There are also many websites such as www.greenbeltfresh.ca that can locate local farmers markets closest to your city; a great tool! This link provides with some interesting topics discussed in the film, Food Inc., and the importance of educating yourself about where your food comes from. Have a look, because after all, you are what you eat! 

Came accross this cartoon the other day...really gets you thinking about where your food comes from!

Link: http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/action