Where’s the smog?
July 23rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The most recent piece I did for CBC Toronto.
I pitched that we do a story about how Toronto, despite the number of hot days we’ve had this summer, has seen so few smog days in comparison to years prior.
53 smog days in 2005, 49 in 2007 and just one so far in 2011. I asked around and found out why. Also filed for radio.
Dadaab, Kenya
July 16th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I’ve been doing some on-air reporting for CBC Toronto for the last week and will continue next month.
Here’s a link (can’t embed) to my latest piece, about Dadaab, Kenya, and the people in Toronto who have personal connections to the world’s largest refugee camp.
Demo
June 28th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I FINALLY got around to completing my demo reel. Take a look here, just a compilation of standups I did during my time at Ryerson and during my internships at CNN and CBC London.
SE Asia: The Prison
June 17th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I blogged about this recently, but Roop Gill just finished editing a wonderfully telling piece about our intense experience at S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Check out her description of how tough it was to walk around this place, trying to shoot footage, while being hit repeatedly by crippling emotions.
SE Asia: The Killing Fields
June 8th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
SE Asia: Genocide in Phnom Penh
June 4th, 2011 § 1 Comment
So, we got back from SE Asia three weeks ago today. I think I’ve been avoiding blogging about the experience mostly because I miss it there so much, and going through all the photos makes me miss it even more. Especially since it’s rained probably 15 of the 21 days I’ve been back in Toronto…
Anyway, here’s a peek into what we experienced in Cambodia, specifically Phnom Penh and the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum, more commonly known as S-21 Prison. The prison was a former high school that was used to shackle, torture and kill Cambodian prisoners, all being held by Pol Pot‘s Khmer Rouge regime in the mid- to late 70′s.
Prisoners were beaten and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit, and were subjected to brutal torture methods, and then made to sit in pools of their own blood. By 1976, the grounds at S-21 were so full of bodies that the remaining prisoners destined for death were sent to Choeung Ek, more commonly known as one of the infamous Killing Fields.
All the wonderful photos below were taken by Roop Gill.
The prisoners were numbered, starting from "1" every day. Note: the prisoner in the middle is #1058.
Prisoners' brick cells were lined up side by side, not wide enough to stretch one's arms. Inmates were forced to stay silent and lie on the floor, on penalty of torture.
Left: a prisoner's toilet. Right: a prisoner's blood still stains the floor.
Barbed wire was put in to prevent suicide attempts, after a prisoner jumped off the second level.
Some prisoners were given private rooms, but shackled to an iron bed and forced to keep quiet and still while being tortured.
This place was heart-wrenching. But it was good to see people of Cambodian descent of all ages, especially since our guide at the Killing Fields told us that some elders avoid telling their kids about this portion of history, just because it’s so dark and disturbing. Education is always seen as the key to avoid repeating mistakes of the past, but I’m not sure how a parent would even broach this subject with their child, especially if an ancestor was involved. That’s not unlikely, since many estimates say about 1.7 million of the country’s eight million were killed.
I know it’s always tough for my Grandma to bring up the Partition of India from 1947, since they had to escape what is now known as Pakistan for their future homes in India, leaving behind almost everything they had. And in her personal story, there was a death, but the moral is about survival. Here, there is no happy ending, but the moral can still be taught as the same.
S-21 was our second stop in our day in Phnom Penh. The first was at the Killing Fields. That’s coming up next.
A week left in SE Asia
May 7th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Just a short one.
After two weeks traveling around SE Asia, we’re now in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A gorgeous place with beautiful mountains, it’s helped perpetuate our unbelievable stretch of meeting some of the nicest people in the world, since we touched down in Vietnam in late April. By nicest, I mean not just hotel and restaurant staff, but random people in the street who stop to offer help with directions, or just casually smile and wave as you pass by.
A lot of little things have helped make this trip amazing. And while, obviously, the scenery and the history is why we chose Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand as our three major destinations, the people have made the trip absolutely breathtaking.
I’ll post more when I’m back, with pictures (via Roop Gill) of the landscapes, bays, beaches, and beautfiul, beautiful people. Roop also shot some video, mainly at S-21 prison and the Killing Fields in Cambodia, which I’ll write and voice-over, and we’ll edit into pieces when we return.
Heading to the Sunday night bazaar in the old city tonight, then Koh Samui early tomorrow morning for four days of relaxation (not that I need MORE tanning) before heading back to Toronto.
Mid-East governments are sweating
February 15th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I wrote a longer article for blastmagazine.com about the top five Mid-east governments that are facing major uprisings right now, and what each are fighting for. There’s also a short list of upcoming planned major protests in other countries where the people are starting to get restless.
Here’s a clip:
“The Egyptians weren’t the first peoples in the Arab world to rise up against an oppressive government in 2011. Before that Facebook group was made, the people of Tunisia rose up against their (now former) president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, kicked him out, and have had an acting president since mid-December.
Egypt got so much attention because of the sheer scale of the protests, the millions that marched and demanded democracy, and the fact that they are a major receiver of U.S. aid. But now, as Part I of Egypt’s fight for freedom has come to a close, several of its Arab counterparts are learning from it and Tunisia’s example.”
