The Tribune

I’ve recently noticed a change in the way people are talking. From the street to the metro and from the library to the grocery store, people everywhere are talking to themselves. While I encountered this widespread habit upon first moving to Montreal and tried to think of it as one of our city’s endearing little quirks, the trend seems to have increased of late.

I offer you questions, not answers. Privacy is a complicated issue, with many problems dwelling at the collision of our various human values. We feel differently about our information being in the hands of others depending on who they are. Information in the hands of stalkers is creepy and possibly dangerous.

Warning: The following column is written with a heterosexual audience in mind (which is something I wouldn’t normally do), but generally I think the queer community is much more open to the joys of oral sex and doesn’t need a talking to on the subject. Why has performing oral sex become a derogatory thing? Why do the media, music industry and porn (okay, bad example) make it out to be all about power for the person receiving it? I think it’s about power for the person giving oral sex.

Being a student sucks sometimes. Crazy stress, daily intellectual calisthenics, and intense sleep deprivation are all part of the day-to-day routine. By now, you’re probably used to the stress – you may even enjoy it on some level. Still, many of you, like me, have likely been wishing for a lighter course load since you started learning fractions, or at least for a break from homework that didn’t coincide with getting a summer job.

Prayer Do you sometimes look at your watch and don’t know what time it is? Do you sometime go to sleep, wake up thinking you’re somewhere but discover you’re somewhere else? Do you sometimes go to a room in your house and wonder why you went there? Do you sometime feel so helpless that you say to yourself “God help me,” regardless of what your religion is? I do too! I can go on with an exhaustive list of those little things that we have in common and define us as human beings.

Throughout my short life, friends and colleagues have often asked me why I wear a veil when I travel abroad, and why I choose to hold on to my Islamic values and Egyptian traditions. For some of them, this is something quite odd and surprising. I came to Canada a couple of years ago to pursue my PhD at McGill.