REVIEWS: The Translation of the Bones

By Jen Cutts - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 8:25 AM - 0 Comments

In certain circles, there’s a gaudy fascination with miracles of the Virgin-Mary-on-a-tortilla variety, which might make you hesitate before picking up Kay’s second novel; it begins with a bleeding statue of Christ. But it’s not that kind of story. The incident is mostly forgotten (the question of the miracle’s validity is barely explored), but it sets off a chain of events that ends in a mother’s nightmare.

A church in south London connects the novel’s characters to each other. Simple-minded Mary-Margaret dutifully dusts the church every week. As she gives the statue an extra going-over for Easter, she tumbles from a ladder and believes she has seen His painted blood liquefy. Stella takes care of the church’s flowers, and is the elegant wife of an MP, yearning for her youngest son, away at boarding school. Father Diamond, who is struggling with an eroded faith, tries to contain the fuss over the miracle with the fervour of a man about to be busted by his boss. Fidelma, Mary-Margaret’s mother, doesn’t leave their apartment. She lives in the memory of a brief affair in her native Ireland, and does not see the trouble her daughter is in. The dark climax of the novel comes as Mary-Margaret realizes her mother isn’t technically a widow, and is compelled to wash the sin from their lives with a sacrifice.

Kay won the Orange Award for New Writers for her first novel, An Equal Stillness. Her writing is so rich, you nearly worry for your waistline. But the richness isn’t vanity, and her characters’ daydreams (while cleaning mussels or watching soldiers buying round-trip train tickets) are particularly lovely. Her description of a child’s rugby match nearly breaks your heart. And just as the bleeding statue is never explained, Kay doesn’t try to offer much that’s new on the rationality of faith, its role in grief, and God’s protection (or lack thereof), although she reminds us that, believers or otherwise, we are all united in our longing for answers.

How the British used a fake rock to spy on Russia

By Jen Cutts - Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

RTR/CP

It sounds more like an episode of Inspector Gadget than one of international relations, but a former U.K. official has admitted that Britain used a fake rock to spy on Russia. Six years ago, Russia’s security service, the FSB, claimed British agents had been using handheld computers and a transmitter—concealed inside a plastic rock and planted in a Moscow park—to retrieve data planted by Russian double agents. At the time, then-prime minister Tony Blair downplayed the accusations. But Jonathan Powell, Blair’s former chief of staff, said in a BBC documentary that aired on Jan. 19 that Britain had indeed been caught red-handed.

“They had us bang to rights,” Powell confessed. “There’s not much you can say. The spy rock was embarrassing.” Russia was apparently tipped off to the rock’s significance after the device stopped working. Surveillance footage showed several men slowing as they walked by the rock; one stopped to give it a kick (using the favoured technique of DIYers everywhere), another carried it away.

And why has Powell chosen to break the first rule of spying now? It’s certainly a humbling revelation for Britain’s spy service. Not only was the espionage work so bumbling, but the U.K. was violating a post-Cold War agreement not to spy on Russia. (That said, the number of Russian spys in London “has not fallen since Soviet times,” according to MI5’s website.) Nikolai Kovalyov, a Russian politician and former FSB head, told a Russian news agency that Powell’s admission “is a serious signal from London that it is time to improve our relations.” Perhaps a step forward in an often rocky relationship?

China’s panda census

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 10:45 AM - 0 Comments

CDSB/ChinaFotoPress

They might be easy to come by on YouTube, but panda sightings in the wild are nearly once in a lifetime—making the bears awfully hard to count. But researchers in China are trying anyway, in the first census of the endangered population in 10 years.

Pandas are shy and solitary by nature. “I’ve been working in these mountains for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a panda in the wild,” Dai Bo, a biologist with China’s forestry ministry, told the Los Angeles Times. So, for the next year, more than 100 people will be scrambling over 32,000 sq. km of mountains in central China, not looking up for the bamboo-munching mammals, but down, for their pale-green droppings.

By analyzing those droppings, scientists can estimate how many pandas are living in an area. In 2000-01, when the animals were last counted, the number stood at around 1,600. Researchers are hoping that when results from the current survey are published in 2013, they will show that conservation efforts, such as a quadrupling of nature reserves and strict anti-poaching laws, have made a difference.

Great snakes! Tintin takes India.

By Jen Cutts - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Paramount Pictures

Not even “thundering typhoons”—to borrow a line from Captain Haddock—could have kept moviegoers in India away from The Adventures of Tintin. Steven Spielberg’s 3D revival of the exploits of the boy-reporter-turned-detective earned $1.5 million in its first weekend, the highest-ever opening for an animated movie in India. Tintin opened there fully six weeks ahead of its Dec. 21 North American release date. Spielberg himself made the call. “Tintin is huge in India,” a Sony Pictures (India) spokesperson explains.

Why are Indians so taken with Tintin? Sandip Roy, writing on The Huffington Post, suggests it was his independence and curiosity—traits “never encouraged in our schools, which were all about obedience and memory.” The books were first translated into Bengali in the mid-’70s. The Hindi translation, which began in 2005, was an onerous process, befitting its cultural significance. It took two years to find a translator who “lived, ate, dreamt and breathed Tintin,” according to publisher Ajay Mago. “The litmus test,” he adds, “was how well a translator could translate ‘billions of blue blistering barnacles.’ ”

Parliamentarians of the Year (best represents constituents): Michael Chong

By Jen Cutts - Monday, November 21, 2011 at 7:24 PM - 0 Comments

Peter Bregg/Maclean's

Michael Chong’s guiding political rule is: always pay attention to your constituents. “The least we can do for people who have disagreements with the government is to relay those concerns to Ottawa,” he tells Maclean’s. “They want to know that, at the very least, they’re being listened to.”

Perhaps best known for resigning from the Harper cabinet after refusing to support a government motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation, the Tory backbencher remains a hometown hero in Wellington-Halton Hills, the riding in which he grew up, and now represents. This past spring, the self-described “Wellington County boy” took nearly 64 per cent of the vote in his fourth straight electoral win; few of his opponents bothered putting up signs, or showing up for all-candidates’ meetings. Continue…

No grease for a squeaky wheel

By Jen Cutts - Monday, November 21, 2011 at 8:15 AM - 0 Comments

South Africa’s ruling party has rid itself of a squeaky wheel. The African National Congress (ANC) suspended the outspoken president of its youth league for five years earlier this month, after finding him guilty of “sowing division” within the party. Julius Malema, 31, says he will appeal, but observers predict he has little chance of success.

Malema is a controversial figure. He’s seen by some as a voice for poor black South Africans, who are frustrated with President Jacob Zuma’s inability to create jobs or deliver basic services. Others criticize Malema’s high-flying lifestyle, suspicious because of the modest pay he receives.

Either way, the last straw was Malema’s criticism of neighbouring Botswana’s government, which goes against ANC policy. Though it was more likely his threat to transfer support from Zuma to another candidate at a crucial party conference next year—putting a second term for the president at risk—that sealed his fate. Malema’s ouster will almost certainly lead to more division in the ANC as the scramble for the leadership intensifies.

A Turkish smackdown

By Jen Cutts - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 11:30 AM - 0 Comments

Turkey’s prime minister wasn’t in the mood to make nice. Hours before he would be flashing a thin smile at a photo op with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last Wednesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped by the offices of Germany’s Bild newspaper to boldly criticize her in an interview. Erdogan blasted Merkel for her government’s immigration policies in a well-timed attack: the pair met at a ceremony marking 50 years since 650,000 Turkish “guest workers” arrived in Germany as part of a labour pact. Today, 2.5 million people in Germany have Turkish roots, though barely a third are citizens.

“German politicians do not give enough recognition to the integration” of these Turks, Erdogan told Bild, pointing to Germany’s resistance to dual citizenship, and saying it is failing to recognize Turks’ contributions. “The guest workers of yesterday are slowly becoming employers, academics, artists,” he said. This despite the fact that Turks, who make up the largest German minority, come last in measures of literacy, education and employment.

Erdogan also criticized Germany for giving only lukewarm support to Turkey’s bid to join the EU. With Turkey’s surging economy and Erdogan’s own growing influence, he can perhaps afford to ruffle a few feathers.

Jailhouse rock in Volgograd

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 8:15 AM - 0 Comments

Fish tanks, sofa beds, wood panelling—not quite what you’d expect from a Russian jail cell. So when authorities dropped by prison number 12 unannounced earlier this month, and found mafia bosses serving time in three secret, pimped-out rooms, the prison’s governor was quickly out of a job.

The head of the facility in the Volgograd region had allegedly been collecting rubles for allowing the luxurious cells, and for providing comforts like plasma TVs, imported liquor and Internet access. Framed photographs of notorious Russian criminals were hung on the wall, and a collection of handmade knives was also found. The region’s prison service tried to quiet the scandal with a statement claiming the rooms were for counselling, and that the alcohol discovered was in fact nothing but aftershave.

But Russians have heard it all before. A similar scandal played out in April, when photos were posted online of toga-wearing prisoners celebrating a fellow convict’s birthday with caviar and McDonald’s. For prisoners without connections on the outside, Russia’s penal system—recently likened to Stalin’s gulags by the country’s justice minister—is much tougher to endure. The fact that Russia is second only to the U.S. in how many of its citizens are jailed likely isn’t helping.

Dilma Rousseff: more than just Lula lite

By Jen Cutts - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

Pedro Ladeira/AFP/Getty Images

Dilma Rousseff is on a roll. After just nine months in office, Brazil’s president has parlayed a string of corruption scandals into a boost in popularity (87 per cent of Brazilians say she is doing an average, good or excellent job). She is quickly shaking off the expectation that she would quietly serve as a placeholder for former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a man described by Barack Obama as “the most popular politician on Earth” (but prevented by law from seeking a third consecutive term in office). And when the UN General Assembly opened last week, Rousseff delivered the opening address, the first woman ever to do so.

For most heads of state, losing four ministers and dozens of officials to accusations of corruption in under a year would spell trouble. But Rousseff is making it work for her, appearing to Brazilians to be shaking bad apples from government. The latest is Pedro Novais, 81, who resigned on Sept. 14 as tourism minister after a São Paolo newspaper ran a story alleging he used public money to hire a maid and chauffeur for his wife. In August, more than 30 officials from his ministry resigned over similar accusations. Rousseff has also pushed out her chief of staff and transport and agriculture ministers, all over allegations of graft.

The press in Brazil has tried to paint a picture of a president who is “only putting on a show of cleaning house,” says Matthew Taylor, a political scientist at the University of São Paulo, “without engaging the deeper problems of corruption.” But that image isn’t sticking. “It seems she’s managed to convince the public that she had nothing to do with the worst of the problems,” says Taylor, by “discreetly pointing to the fact that she ‘inherited’ much of her cabinet” from Lula, who took more of a wait-and-see approach to releasing scandal-stained ministers.

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South Africa appoints a preacher to the court

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

In a notably headstrong move, South African President Jacob Zuma two weeks ago chose a controversial pastor to lead his nation’s highest court for the next 10 years. Mogoeng Mogoeng, 50, a judge who belongs to a church that claims homosexuality is a “deviation” curable by prayer, told an interview panel that he’d been chosen by God to serve as chief justice of the country’s Constitutional Court.

Opposition parties, legal associations, and women’s and gay rights groups objected to his candidacy, citing past rulings they called homophobic and insensitive to violence against women (in a country with shockingly high rates of sexual assault). In one example, in 2007 Mogoeng suspended the sentence of a man who had tried to rape his estranged wife, arguing he had used “minimum force” and had been “aroused” by the victim, who was “clad in panties and a nightdress.” The judge countered that other, harsher rulings by him had been deliberately overlooked.

Mogoeng, who will also head the commission that recommends further judicial appointees, was the only nominee for the position. At least one rights group, AfriForum, has said it is looking into launching a legal challenge of the selection process.

When the moon hits your eye

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 0 Comments

Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images

Some might call it a pie-in-the-sky idea, but Domino’s says it plans to build a pizzeria on the moon. The company’s Japanese arm outlined its cosmic ambition on a website, moon.dominos.jp, with an artist’s renderings of a two-storey concrete dome containing a kitchen, eat-in space and plantation (staff living quarters and a “play room” with zero-gravity bowling lanes are below the surface). The project, envisioned with the help of well-known Japanese construction firm Maeda Corp., would cost roughly $21 billion—about 240 times Domino’s profits in 2010 (though costs would be offset by using the moon’s mineral deposits to mix the concrete).

In light of that shortfall, and NASA’s recent shutdown of the space shuttle program, the plan is likely nothing more than an elaborate publicity ploy. Domino’s Japan is known for cheeky stunts—last year, it had a flood of applicants for a one-hour pizza delivery job that paid $32,000. But, in a video on the website, Domino’s Japan president Scott K. Oelkers (in a space suit, naturally) assures “fellow earthlings” of his company’s sincerity, saying, “Perhaps you think we’re foolish to take on such a challenge, but we have a dream to deliver our pizza on the moon.”

Jason Richard Chenier: 1975 – 2011

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 1:45 PM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Marc Ngui

Jason Richard Chenier was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., on Aug. 17, 1975, to Richard, a miner, and Barbara. With “poker-straight” blond hair and big blue eyes, he was an outgoing kid, says his uncle, George Staszak. While younger sister Jennifer was the artistic one (once winning the family a trip to Ottawa with a drawing she entered in a Maclean’s contest, says George), Jason was the sporty one; often, the entire family would travel to cheer him on at out-of-town hockey games. When summer came, it was baseball, or fishing with George. If Jason didn’t like what Barbara was serving for dinner, says George, he’d “run two streets over to Granny’s house, and get fed whatever he liked there.”

In high school, Jason took summer jobs at the mine where Richard worked. He also inherited his dad’s habit of teasing people he liked, says Tracy Racine, who didn’t mind the attention. Though she was just 13 and three years behind Jason in the small English high school they attended, she couldn’t help developing a crush on the “loud” boy who was friends with her older brother, and prayed that she would one day marry him. But too soon, Jason left Quebec for Sudbury, Ont., to live with his grandmother (who’d moved) and attend Grade 13.

In 1994, Jay, as his friends had begun calling him, enrolled in Cambrian College’s mining engineering technician program. He shared an apartment with Rob Des Rivieres, who had the pleasure of being subjected to Jay’s practical jokes. One night, after drinking more than he’d planned at a keg party, Rob decided to sleep it off in his car. He awoke to find Jay had stuffed it to the roof with things from the neighbours’ yards: “Firewood, recycle boxes, garden gnomes. It was never just a low-end prank with Jay.” After they’d been in school for two years, nickel prices were surging and local mine Inco was paying for students to take the “common core” course that would certify them to work underground, says Bill Bennett, who also got to know Jay at Cambrian. Though Bill and others moved right from the course to jobs at Inco, Jay stuck with school and finished the last year of his program. By the time he graduated, the nickel market had turned down, and Jay wasn’t able to get on with Inco. He returned to Rouyn-Noranda, and worked a few short-term contracts at different mines in the area.

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The end: Alysa Naomi Rotstein | 1981-2011

By Jen Cutts - Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 1 Comment

Illustration by Team Macho

Alysa Naomi Rotstein was born in Hamilton on Jan. 30, 1981, the first-born for Simone, an elementary schoolteacher, and Ed, a psychiatrist. At eight months, Simone and Ed noticed that Alysa would topple over when trying to sit, and favoured her left arm; doctors later diagnosed cerebral palsy, though “a mild right-sided weakness is what we called it,” says Ed. Brother Joshua was born two years later, and Simone remembers teaching them to climb the stairs at the same time. Brother Ben came along in 1985.

Alysa was a curly-haired and imaginative child, spending hours in the yard inventing adventures with neighbourhood kids. Summers were spent at a left-leaning Jewish camp, where Alysa pushed herself to “pull her own weight” with camp duties, says Simone, and where she formed a passion for “changing the world.” At 14, Alysa, who loved writing, won a city-wide contest for her poem about a homeless man, displaying early on an empathy that would shape her work and friendships.

After high school, Alysa spent a year in Israel, working on a kibbutz and volunteering. On her return, she began a bachelor’s in social work at McGill. Inspired by the Shabbat dinners she’d enjoyed at the home of a Montreal family, Alysa began hosting her own Shabbat potlucks. “Alysa loved to sit around a table and share food,” says friend Jenny Cohen. Everyone and all faiths were welcome, and Alysa would preside over the sharing of “highlights and lowlights” of the past week. With her warmth and signature laugh (like “staccato hiccups,” says Jenny), Alysa brought people together and made friends effortlessly.

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