Revisiting Charlie Hebdo: Bloodshed over Words

Images Courtesy of Huffington Post

Five years ago, on January 7th, 2015, a series of terrorist attacks took place in Paris, France, claiming the lives of 17 people. These 17 people were all staff members of the Paris offices for the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. This violent and tragic event shook the nation, as well as the rest of the world. This would not be the last time that Paris would be on the receiving end of terrorist attacks, but for now, let’s revisit what gave these two gunmen their “justification” to take 17 innocent lives.

Background: What Happened?

As stated earlier, Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical magazine. Their content is specifically designed to offend, and they criticize every single group imaginable. Race, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, etc. They don’t pull any punches. The magazine has earned the ire of many, and public backlash is their identity. They especially didn’t hold back when satirizing the Islamic faith.

In Islam, it’s forbidden to produce drawings or images of the Prophet Muhammad, which is something that Charlie Hebdo did, on numerous occasions leading up to the attack. Algeiran French brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi stormed the magazine’s offices the morning of the attack and opened fire in response to these publications. 

The Inclusivity of Freedom

When I watched this all unfold on the news, I was only 13 years old. At that time, I was confused as to why people ended up dying over a bunch of cartoons. Well, five years later, I still haven’t changed my stance on the subject. As a Muslim, I will admit that I was mildly offended at the satirical publications that Chalie Hebdo put out on Islam. But was it worth the cost of over a dozen innocent lives: absolutely not.

What essentially happened is that a bunch of people ended up losing their lives purely due to a difference in opinion. It’s clear that these two gunmen failed to see the duality of the term “freedom of speech”. Freedom is not selective. When it's put in place, it belongs to everybody, regardless of whether or not you agree with them. We are all entitled to our own opinion, and sure we may clash at times, but it’s important that for the most part we should all feel safe expressing our words, our ideas, and our views. 

I don’t really have anything more to say on this topic now that I think about it. What happened was horrific, and should have never taken place to begin with. The inclusivity of freedom is an important thing that we should always take heed of. As for myself, whenever I disagree with someone else’s views, I make sure to remember the wise words of historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

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Amal Sheikhmusse

Amal Sheikhmusse is a second-year student of Algonquin College’s Professional Writing Program. Whenever she isn’t practicing her future editor skills by giving unwarranted critique to all her friends and family, you can find her re-visiting childhood nostalgia, notebook in hand, ready to verbally tear her childhood hopes and dreams at a moment’s notice. 

The Never-Ending Cycle of Toxicity

Image from Spiritualcleansing.org

I’ll be honest; tackling this subject is going to be a bit difficult for me. Mainly because any time I try to even think about it, my mood is ruined for the rest of the day. Nevertheless, It’s a topic that needs to be spoken about, especially given the age of social media we live in, so I will try my very hardest not to throw my laptop out the window in frustration

I’m sure you’re all aware of the terms “toxic feminism” and “toxic masculinity”, and have experienced or witnessed instances of it taking place. And while they’re both opposing forces dead set on reigning victorious over the opposite side’s toxic views with their own toxicity, neither one can exist without the other. Yes, you read that right. These two polarized, yet equally vile, schools of thought are codependent on each other. “How’s that even possible?” you’re probably asking. Well, that’s what we’re here to discuss. But before that, let’s make sure that we have a little better understanding of just how each side works. Rest assured, however, their hateful idiotic views aren’t all that hard to follow.

Toxic Feminism, and How it’s Discredited Actual Feminism

Remember feminism? Remember the first, second, and third waves of women’s rights movements over the last century that have fought for women to have the same basic rights as men? Because I do. Had it not been for them, I probably wouldn’t even be writing this post right now.

To put it simply, “toxic feminism” takes everything that feminism stood for, and just dumps all over it. They twist and doctor traditional feminism, which is based on gender equality, and morphs it into a form of gender supremacy. These self-proclaimed “feminists” are essentially using the feminist cause to harass the opposite sex, and then claim that its all for women’s rights and that anyone who opposes their actions is a misogynist.

Their actions have caused just the mention of the word “feminism” to leave a bad taste in the mouths of others, effectively discrediting the intergenerational sacrifices of hundreds of women. It’s kind of ironic when you think about it. They claim to be all for the feminist cause, but the result of their actions do more harm for it than good.

I think I’ve made it pretty obvious that I really don’t like toxic feminism. I hate toxic people and behavior as a whole, but toxic feminism hits a little too close to home. As a woman myself, I value all of the sacrifices that those before me have made in order to give me the rights and freedoms that I have today. I wouldn’t be the person that I am today had it not been for them. Toxic feminism has made a mockery of their hard work, and it boils my blood that they have a platform to spread their vile, man-hating agenda, giving “toxic masculinity” more material to justify their own toxicity.

Toxic Masculinity, and The Never-ending Cycle of Toxicity

Now I’m not a fan of it either, but “toxic masculinity” makes me more sad than angry. It’s essentially a collection of negative ideologies of what it means to be “masculine”. This includes homophobia, misogyny, and the glorification of violence, just to name a few. 

This mindset stems primarily from the societal expectations of men and women. Women were traditionally expected to be graceful, submissive, elegant, and were required to try their very hardest to conform to society’s expectations of beauty. Men on the other hand, were traditionally expected to be tough, socially dominant, competitive, and have a serious lack of emotion. Anything they did that was considered “feminine” would result in ridicule, and also somehow make them less of a man. Honestly, I could go on for hours about how this is one of the most self-damaging mindsets to have, but I’ll spare you the rant.

An important thing to not is that men who practice toxic masculinity are not the biggest fans of feminism. The idea of women being just as competent as men is not one that they’re too fond of. Remember how this mindset stems from societal gender expectations? They are firm believers of those ideals, which earns them the ire of the toxic feminism team. This turns into a never-ending cycle of toxicity, with the toxic feminism side spewing man-hatred, and the toxic masculinity side taking that and using it as evidence against feminism as a whole.

Their actions anger these toxic feminists, prompting them to spew even more man-hatred, which is then used against them from the opposing side. This cycle gets repeated over and over again, leaving nothing of value behind. It’s nothing but a massive headache for everyone unfortunate enough to bear witness to this pointless, dumpster fire of a battle. 

Equality ≠ Supremacy

It pains me that I actually have to say this, especially given the era that we live in, but here it is; equality is not the same as supremacy. Supremacy suggests that one group is better than the rest, and are deserving of unfair advantages over everyone else. 

Words cannot begin to describe just how wrong that is; we are all equal to one another, regardless of gender, or race, or sexuality, etc. This is automatic from the moment we’re born, and should have never been up for debate. Look at how much we’ve advanced as a society by working together; none of what we have today would’ve been possible had we not cooperated with each other as equals.

This back-and-forth between toxic masculinity and toxic feminism is the most frustratingly useless and destructive waste of humanity’s time. Honestly, what the hell has it even accomplished? It’s a vicious, perpetual cycle of hatred that hasn’t done anybody any favors and it just needs to stop. For the sake of ourselves and our future development as a species, we need to do away with it immediately. I mean, 2020 has been a complete mess, and the road to recovery is going to be long and tough. The very last thing that we need in our lives is this meaningless cycle of toxicity. 

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Amal Sheikhmusse

Amal Sheikhmusse is a second-year student of Algonquin College’s Professional Writing Program. Whenever she isn’t practicing her future editor skills by giving unwarranted critique to all her friends and family, you can find her re-visiting childhood nostalgia, notebook in hand, ready to verbally tear her childhood hopes and dreams at a moment’s notice. 

COVID-19 vaccine: is it really a good thing?

all photos used courtesy of Pexels.com

I feel the need to preface this by saying that I am strongly pro-vaccine. I believe that if anyone is physically capable of getting vaccinated, they should do so for their own safety and the safety of others. I myself have received all my vaccinations, and my immunization record is up-to-date.

With all that being said, it’s probably a bit surprising to hear that I’m not all that excited about the COVID-19 vaccine coming out so soon. And don’t get me wrong; with everything that the virus has done, I’m all for the cure. I just have a few concerns with how it’s all being handled.

Vaccine Development Timeline

Upon research, vaccine development usually takes years, sometimes decades. And apparently there has been talk of a COVID-19 vaccine coming out sometime in 2021, which is honestly both impressive and concerning at the same time.

I’m aware that the world’s top scientists and medical researchers have been fighting tooth and nail to get a vaccine available to combat the virus, and their hard work is very much appreciated. However, when a process that takes years upon years is condensed into one single year, there’s potential for mistakes to be made. And when it’s something as vital as vaccines, mistakes are completely unforgivable. Vaccines are meant to be put into our bodies to keep us safe; one mistake could jeopardize an entire population.

To put it simply, when a time sensitive and delicate process is unbelievably rushed, it should raise some concern. I mean come on; a COVID-19 vaccine that took only one year to make? I can’t be the only one that’s skeptical about how trustworthy it really is.

Vaccine Testing and Certification

In addition to the lengthy development process, there’s also an even lengthier testing and certification process. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), which is the world’s leading force in vaccine development, there are a multitude of steps and procedures to follow to ensure that a vaccine is safe for the public. Each of these steps typically take up to two years each to complete. 

With that in mind, there are multiple medical facilities around the world, including some in the U.S., that are reportedly already performing “Phase III clinical trials”, which is one of the very last stages of vaccine testing before approval. My question is: how the hell did that happen? How did they all manage to breeze through so many years worth of steps within a few months?

There’s a reason why each of these steps are so time consuming; they include both animal and human testing to ensure the proposed vaccine’s absolute safety. The fact that these proposed vaccines are at the very final stage of human testing is beyond unthinkable. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there have been steps that were skimmed over or even completely skipped, which to me is horrifying given the severity of vaccine safety.

Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Good News?

As of now, there have been over one million deaths caused by COVID-19 worldwide. Millions of people around the world have already lost so much due to the pandemic. To say that there isn’t an urgent need for a solution would be blatantly incorrect. However, it seems to me that in the desperate search for the cure, vaccine research and development has gotten a whole lot sloppier. I want this virus to disappear just as much as anyone, but it isn’t worth potentially putting even more lives at risk with a rushed, faulty vaccine. The world already has so much to deal with; the last thing it needs is a game of vaccine Russian roulette.

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Amal Sheikhmusse

Amal Sheikhmusse is a second-year student of Algonquin College’s Professional Writing Program. Whenever she isn’t practicing her future editor skills by giving unwarranted critique to all her friends and family, you can find her re-visiting childhood nostalgia, notebook in hand, ready to verbally tear her childhood hopes and dreams at a moment’s notice. 

Should we Have to Pay Back CERB? No. No we Shouldn’t.

Image by Pexels

When the coronavirus first made its deadly sweep across Canada back in March, millions of Canadians were left jobless, myself included. Panic quickly settled in as many were left with no way to make ends meet, with some even ending up homeless after not being able to pay rent. 

But just as the country was about to devolve into absolute anarchy and chaos, the Canadian government quickly came out with the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), giving those who have lost their main sources of income sweet financial relief.

What is CERB?

It generously offered $2,000 for every four-week eligibility period, which was more than anyone could’ve asked for. It was an absolute dream; I was among the millions of Canadians that immediately pounced on the opportunity to claim CERB, and it was because of it that I’m now able to pay for my tuition this year among other things. Frankly, it was almost too good to be true. And then after it ended in September, I learned that it really was.

Turns out that CERB is taxable, meaning that there’s a very strong chance many of us are going to have to pay some of it back. How much you’d have to pay back, that would depend on how many cheques you’ve collected. But the fact remains: most of us are going to have to pay a portion of our CERB earnings back.

Image courtesy of The Daily Californian

But should we be getting taxed?

Now, I honestly have a serious problem with this, and it’s not just for personal reasons. Most of those that registered for CERB are from low-income families that were put in an immensely difficult situation thanks to the coronavirus. They likely don’t have the means to pay any of it back, so making CERB a taxable source of income is just plain cruel. On top of this, it's not like anyone ever asked to be put into this situation that no one has control over, so why hold us accountable for a source of income that was our only option outside of complete poverty? 

I’m aware that COVID-19 has already put a serious dent on the Canadian economy, but is taxing what was supposed to be a universal source of income really the way to fix this? I mean, what are we paying taxes for anyways? Isn’t it so that the government can help us when stuff like this happens? But hey, I’m not an economist, so what do I know.

Long story short, do I think we should have to pay back CERB? No, no we shouldn’t, because what good would it do anyways? This country has been ravaged enough as it is, and giving Canadians even more grief isn’t going to solve not even one third of its problems. So for god’s sake Canada: give us a break just this once. Trust me, you’re not doing anyone any favours.

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Amal Sheikhmusse

Amal Sheikhmusse is a second-year student of Algonquin College’s Professional Writing Program. Whenever she isn’t practicing her future editor skills by giving unwarranted critique to all her friends and family, you can find her re-visiting childhood nostalgia, notebook in hand, ready to verbally tear her childhood hopes and dreams at a moment’s notice.