Posts with the Greek tag

Barris Beat

Don’t let COVID kill immigration

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
One of thousands of boats that brought refugees out of south-east Asia and to our doorstep.

The note came out of the blue. After retiring from Centennial College where I taught journalism and broadcasting for 18 years, I’ve only periodically run into former students. They’re the ones busily working as newspaper or radio reporters, videographers, editors, etc. Most of the time, I hear from the successful ones. Not from those struggling. Then, I got a note from a young woman named Farheen.

“I have been looking for positions to help me build my portfolio,” she wrote in her email to me. “But due to my lack of experience, I always fall short.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Dot.coms bearing gifts

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment

There’s a story I learned back at school. It tells the tale of an extraordinary deception. Two civilizations, the story goes, were at war – one inside a fortified area, the other outside it. The siege between the two had gone for years, without a victor. Then, those outside the walls withdrew, leaving behind a relic of war – a wooden horse. Rejoicing at their apparent victory, the people inside the walls, pulled the relic into their midst. That night, spies hidden inside the wooden horse crept out, opened the gates and allowed the outside army inside the walls.

“Trust not their presents,” the Trojan priest Laocoon had cried. “Is surely designed by fraud.” But his countrymen had ignored him. And victory belonged to the Greek outsiders.

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