Religious Class For Deaf Muslims Tests Limits of American Sign Language

Noor Javed
Staff Reporter
The teacher is late for class, but none of the students seem to mind. Instead, they are scattered around the main floor of Masjid Toronto, a mosque in the city’s downtown core, seemingly lost in their own conversations.

Hands move frantically and eyes indicate comprehension. For many of the 20-or-so students in the room here to attend the city’s only Islamic class for deaf Muslims, being able to socialize with others from the community is as rare as the chance to learn about their faith.

“Deaf Muslims don’t have many opportunities to meet others from that community, so the chance to have those social connections is very fulfilling,” said Amina Daimee, among the first Muslim ASL/English interpreters who graduated from the George Brown College program this year.

“And because of this class, many of them feel it’s finally their time to access their faith and Islam, because they have never had that before,” said Daimee, who attends the class with her parents who are both deaf.

The teacher, Sheikh Abdool Hamid, arrives and everyone gathers on the floor around him. He begins with the customary prayer, usually done in Arabic. But for this bimonthly class he has promised to keep his lessons strictly in English so that Daimee can use American Sign Language to communicate.

“It’s a new learning experience for me. I have never had to speak before without using Arabic terms,” said Hamid.

But in a class as diverse as this, even English has its limitations. Many here began speaking Pakistani Sign Language, Arabic Sign Language and Turkish Sign Language long before they knew ASL existed — and are only now learning the nuances of the second language.

Moreover, ASL doesn’t really take diversity into consideration, said Daimee. Words like ‘Mecca’ and ‘Mohammed’ simply don’t exist. So the class has agreed for now to simply spell such words out.

Some English words have to be adapted for the Islamic context.

“The sign for ‘prayer’ is different for Muslims, and you can’t make the sign for ‘blessing’ like Catholics do, in the shape of a cross. It would be something else,” said David Kolenda, an ASL/English interpreter who has been helping the group out.

But the challenge of communicating with people from a dozen countries is further complicated by what they already know.

“There are signs that are very unique — even in Pakistan they might have a sign for Mecca, but if you go to Kuwait, they might have a different sign for Mecca,” said Daimee.

Which is why most of the first class in April began with an extensive discussion on the most basic aspect of any religion class: a common sign for God.

“Almost everyone in the class had a different sign for Allah,” said Daimee. “They all pointed upwards, but the biggest difference is the shape of the hand,” she explained.

“Then people had different signs for ‘imam’, for ‘Quran’, even for ‘Islam’ . . . so those are the things we had to discuss to set what we would use for this class.”

“So in a way, with every class, we are kind of making up a new language on the spot,” she said. And perhaps the beginning of what some may see as a distinct Canadian-Muslim sign language.

“Language is always evolving, so who knows what will happen?” said Daimee.

This is the first time, in over 15 years, that there has been an official Islamic class for deaf Muslims, said Rabia Khedr, executive director of the Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities, the group organizing the classes. The community, made up of dozens of individuals, has largely been isolated from each other since then.

“Some of these people have come to a mosque after a long time,” said Khedr. “For many of the teenagers, this is their first time being involved in anything religious,” she said.

“And what they all really want is a class where they can learn the basics of their faith — who was Adam, the stories of the prophets, and learn what prayer really is — basically an Islam 101,” she said.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/813486--religious-class-for-deaf-muslims-tests-limits-of-american-sign-language

Low- Income Canadians Have More Heart Attacks

CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Friday May. 28, 2010 9:13 AM ET

Canadians who live in low-income neighbourhoods are more likely to have a heart attack than their wealthier counterparts, a new report indicates.

But their quality of care in hospital seems to be about the same, finds a new report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Almost 67,000 Canadians landed in hospital due to a heart attack in 2008-09.

A breakdown of five neighbourhood income levels found that those in the least-affluent areas were 37 per cent more likely to have a heart attack than those in the most-affluent districts.

The report says the risk of dying in hospital within 30 days was about the same for all socio-economic groups, averaging 8.3 per cent. However the most affluent patients were seven per cent more likely than the least affluent to have a procedure such as angioplasty or bypass surgery.

"Medical literature indicates that not every patient is selected for or would benefit from such a procedure," the report said.

Heart attack rates were at a high of 347 per 100,000 in Newfoundland and Labrador and a low of 169 per 100,000 in British Columbia, after population age differences were taken into account.

The CIHI researchers said addressing gaps in heart health between socio-economic groups and geographic areas in Canada could help improve the health of the population.

The Health Indicators 2010 report included an estimate of cost savings if all socio-economic groups had a heart-attack rate like that of the most affluent neighbourhoods.

"The overall rate of hospitalized heart attacks would have decreased by approximately 16 per cent, or the equivalent of about 10,400 hospitalized heart attacks," the report said.

"Based on 2007-2008 cost data, this represents an estimated potential savings in hospital costs of about $100 million, not including physician fees."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100528/heart-attacks-100528/

Oakland to License, Tax Indoor Marijuana Indoors

The Associated Press

Date: Friday May. 28, 2010 5:03 PM ET

OAKLAND, Calif. — Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.

If you can't beat 'em, tax 'em.

After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations.

One of the authors, Councilman Larry Reid, said the proposal is more of an effort to bring in money than an endorsement of legalizing marijuana use — although the council has unanimously supported that, too.

The city is facing a $42 million budget shortfall. The tax voters approved last summer on the four medical marijuana clubs allowed under Oakland law is expected to contribute $1 million to its coffers in the first year, Reid said. A tax on growers' sales to the clubs could bring in substantially more, he said.

"Looking at the economic analysis, we will generate a considerable amount of additional revenues, and that will certainly help us weather the hard economic times that all urban areas are having to deal with," Reid said.

How much money is at stake isn't clear because the tax rate and the number of facilities the law would allow haven't been decided. A report prepared for AgraMed Inc., one of the companies planning to seek a grower's license, said its proposed 100,000-square-foot-project near the Oakland Coliseum would produce more than $2 million in city taxes each year.

Given their likely locations in empty warehouses in industrial neighborhoods, the marijuana nurseries under consideration would have more in common with factories than rural pot farms.

Dhar Mann, the founder of an Oakland hydroponics equipment store called iGrow, and Derek Peterson, a former stock broker who now sells luxury trailers outfitted for growing pot as a co-founder of GrowOp Enterprises, have hired an architect to draft plans for two warehouses where marijuana would be grown and processed year-round.

Their vision includes using lights, trays and other equipment manufactured by iGrow and creating an online system that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to see what pot strains are in stock, place orders and track deliveries.

"We are emulating the wine industry, but instead of 'from grape to bottle,' it's 'from plant to pipe,'" Mann said.

"Or seed to sack," offered Peterson.

The pair say they intend to operate the pot-growing business they have dubbed GROPECH — Grass Roots of Oakland Philanthropic and Economic Coalition for Humanity — as a not-for-profit. They anticipate gross sales reaching $70 million a year. After paying their expenses, they'd funnel the money to local charities and non-profits through a competitive grant process.

The discussion in Oakland comes amid a statewide campaign to make California the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and to authorize cities to sell and tax sales to adults. Another Oakland pot entrepreneur, Richard Lee, is sponsoring a ballot measure voters will consider in November.

Lee, who owns two of Oakland's four dispensaries as well as Oaksterdam University, a trade school for the medical marijuana industry, hopes to secure one of the cultivation permits, but he thinks the city should opt for having more, smaller sites instead of a handful of large ones.

"We need to legalize and tax and regulate the production side as well as the retail side," Lee said. "It's a natural step."

Other supporters say licensed growers would create hundreds of well-paying jobs. The local branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union already has signed up about 100 medical marijuana workers, and the growers are expected to have union shops as well, said Dan Rush, special operations director of UFCW Local 5.

"I think Oakland's intention is to make Oakland the leader and the trendsetter in how this industry can be effective in all of California," Rush said.

Allowing medical marijuana to be grown openly also could give patients a better idea of where their pot is coming from. Now, many growers hide their identities to avoid federal prosecution.

Oakland has already developed a reputation as one of the nation's most pot-friendly cities. Legislation on the city's books includes a declaration of a public health emergency after federal crackdowns on marijuana clubs and a ballot measure instructing police to make marijuana their lowest enforcement priority.

Self-described "guru of ganja" Ed Rosenthal, a popular writer of pot-growing how-to books, lived in Oakland for 25 years before moving recently to a more affluent borough nearby. He credits the city's positive attitude toward marijuana to a critical mass of activists who have flocked there since the 1970s.

"The whole population of Oakland is just very progressive," Rosenthal said. "It's the radicals who couldn't afford Berkeley or San Francisco who all moved to Oakland."

Read more:http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100528/oakland-medical-marijuana-100528/

Canadians Eating More Fruits and Veggies

Canadians are consuming more fresh fruits and vegetables and cutting calories, a report by Statistics Canada shows.

Canadians ate a record 40.7 kilograms of fresh vegetables per person in 2009, with cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes and onions showing the largest percentage increases in annual consumption. That was higher than the annual average of 38.6 kg per person for the previous five years.

On a per capita basis, the Canadian diet also included more fruit, cereals, coffee and fish in 2009 compared with 2008, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

Total daily intake of calories per person fell to 2,358 in 2009, down nearly 156 calories from the peak in 2001 of more than 2,500 calories.

"In the past two decades, Canadians have shifted towards a diet which includes more fruits and vegetables, cereal products, and nuts and beans," the report said.

During the last 20 years, poultry consumption has increased while appetite for red meat like pork and beef has declined by 5.2 kilograms per person.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/05/28/diet-canada.html#ixzz06XP9m9Bv

Newfounland UFOs Still a Mystery

The unidentified flying objects spotted in January off Newfoundland remain a mystery to the government, despite extensive scrutiny, according to Department of National Defence (DND) documents obtained by CBC News.

The documents contain grainy images of a rocket with a long, fiery tail soaring skyward. The reports rule out missiles and model rockets, but don't suggest what the images might show.

Military experts discredit the possibility of ballistic and cruise missiles. DND's Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (DSTI) assessed the images and reported: "The object is not a ballistic missile, not a cruise missile in boost phase nor a cruise missile in-flight phase. It is also not a licensed model rocket launcher."

The Jan. 25 sighting happened on the southern coast of Newfoundland near Harbour Mille. Several residents reported seeing the objects, including a woman who was able to photograph one of them. She reported to the RCMP that she had seen three missiles soaring over the ocean and it looked as if they had come up out of the water.

The DSTI says in the documents that the only missiles that can be launched from a submarine are ballistic or cruise missiles, but the country's top arms experts say the object photographed doesn't fit that profile.

"There are no distinguishing features on the object to use for identification … the shape of the flame is atypical of a missile launch," and "the length of the flame is greater than that of the rocket body. This eliminates the possibility that it is a cruise missile jet engine exhaust," said DSTI.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/05/28/ufo-newfoundland-dnd.html#ixzz06TZ5wHkj