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OPEN POSITIONS: Members of G8 Research Group gaze ponderously at Prof. John Kirton.
G8 Gets Grilled at Munk Centre By Dan Craig
By Alexandra Kazia “I’m shameless in my pleasures,” said Jake Babad, a self published third year UofT student answering a question about authors who may be guilty pleasures. It’s nice not hearing an air of pretension from this English and Cinema studies major. Babad completed his novel, Hollywood North, last year. It’s a book about a 19 year-old marketing intern who works at the Toronto offices of a major American film studio. It follows his summer’s misadventures and is a coming of age comedy and a commentary on what Hollywood looks like in Canada. The book itself, however a labour -or love and labour in general- it may have been to produce was not the problem; writing for Babad was easy and done within a four month span during his year off. “I really had noting better to do. Honest to God it was write or watch
February 28 2008 Vol. XXX No. XX
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Undergrad self-publishes book agents deemed “too Canadian”
November 22 2007 Vol. XXX No. XI
How well would you do if you could create and then write your own exam? Under conditions like these you would expect to get good marks, and you would look more than a little foolish if you failed. This seemed to be the theme of the Heiligendamm Interim Compliance Report released this week by the G8 Research Group. Based out of the Munk Centre for International Studies, the G8 Research Group is composed of over 150 analysts recruited mostly from undergraduate and graduate students attending UofT. Considered an international authority on all things G8 related, the group releases annual report cards on how well the G8 member countries do what they say they will do. Each individual country is given a score based on compliance with twenty-three specific commitments made at the 2007 Heiligendamm Summit. These twenty-three commitments cover a range of issues such as climate change, counter-terrorism, and African debt relief. Over the course of the G8’s 33 year history the UK is the highest scoring country when it comes to complying with commitments made. Canada ranks second overall for compliance, but has had a particularly Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns.” And so he wrote. So much so, that it was a constant effort not to be completely enveloped in his fictional yet semi autobiographically inspired world and ignore family and friends. The key is semi… he makes no pronouncements of having lived this story, rather he based the main character on himself and his past experiences working in that industry (so there will be no *** scandal here). The tiring task would be the search for an agent: most of which
a Conservative government , but rather because of a minority government. It is one thing for leaders to make commitments at international conferences, but it is another thing to actually pass the legislation when you return to Ottawa. The United States has shown the greatest improvement in compliance throughout the history of the G8, and this year it scored the highest. This might be surprising considering America’s typical tendencies towards unilateral
action but Cliff Vanderlinden, Chair of the G8 Research Group, pointed out that compliance on the part of the US is due in large part to the fact that the US has a lot of influence over the agenda and subsequent commitments made at G8 Summits. Hence the theme that if you create your own exam, and then write your own exam, chances are you will get very high marks. A good example of this would be the scoring for commitments to fight climate change. To receive a perfect score in the climate change category a country merely needed to attend the Conference on Climate Change in Bali late last year. Since all countries attended the conference, they all received full marks. The results of the Bali conference are irrelevant so it does not matter if nothing was accomplished. I sure wish I could create my own IR exam this year. The G8 Research Group helps fill a great void of information analysis about the G8 and its activities. They are the only group so far that holds the G8 to such a rigorous account across such a wide range of issues. By publicizing the commitments and the actuality of attempts to fulfill them perhaps will drive the G8 to make more challenging commitments in the future.
agreed that his book was too Canadian to be published. Babad says he was not about to change the locale because of this. He realized how severe the publishing world was on Canadian content, but remains hopeful. “Nothing is set in stone on the matter.” He thinks things can change. After many rejections he decided to self publish. He had written a book and wanted to get it out to the public. It ended up being a somewhat tedious process, acquiring barcodes, ISBN’s and
securing other legalities, but he maintains that tedious as it may have been, “anybody could do it”. His publishing company is named Capoe6; simply just because, and “[he] likes the way his guitar sounds on capoe 6”. Advertising was initially done through Facebook. “It’s good for any kind of artist who has anything to offer.” He then managed to get his book on amazon.com and start a website. Babad, laid back, modest, and seem-
bad year scoring 61 out of 100, placing it 4th behind the US, UK and Germany (in that order). Prof. John Kirton points out that this may not be because of
If you create your own exam, and then write your own exam, chances are you will get very high marks
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ingly content, is proud of his work; he has no delusions of grandeur. “It’s not the greatest book ever written …it’s just a good, fun book.” Despite agent naysayer’s he has gained some recognition; Hollywood North was accepted into the University of Toronto’s Festival of the Arts. On March 11th he will be giving a free reading at Hart House at 8:00 p.m. in the East Common Room. Hollywood North can be purchased at capoe6.ca or amazon.com.