I can’t get over how Twitter has exploded in the last few weeks. I’m constantly seeing newspaper articles devoted to the popularity of the social networking and micro-blogging website. There is an article from the Toronto Star commenting on Mayor David Miller and his twittering, to articles in the Globe and Mail giving advice on Twitter etiquette. There are also opinion pieces dedicated exclusively to Twitter and its popularity. The idea of updating your status and giving accounts of your current activities in one-hundred-and-forty characters or less seems to be very appealing to many people.
Personnally, i don’t really understand all the hype. I think Twitter is an excellent way for businesses and professionals to communicate and share information, but I don’t really like the idea of it being used as a means of constantly updating friends on what you are having for breakfast. Perhaps it’s because the idea of constantly informing friends of your activities verges on the narcissistic, or maybe because I personnally wouldn’t want to share every detail of my life with everyone in my network.
Hannah Moscovitch is one busy woman but had room in her crammed schedule to squeeze in an interview over coffee. “I’ve had two coffees already.” Was her reply when I offered to buy her one. The thirty-year-old playwright took time out of her full schedule to sit down for a brief chat to discuss her career and current projects at Ideal Café, at the corner of Foxley and Ossington.
I feel luck to get an interview with such a busy schedule. Ms. Moscovitch is already high on carffeine from an earlier meeting, and in-between engagements. (Turns out she planned the interview perfectly; her director is sitting a few tables over, working out the details of a current project). East of Berlin, which reopens at Tarragon Theatre in January 2009, is Ms. Moscovitch’s current project. The play is inspired by the testimonials of the children of Nazis. What resonated with Moscovitch is the twist in story: the interviewer is Jewish. When asked where she finds her inspiration, she needed to pause for reflection. “It’s so specific to each play that I write. I read this book about the testimonies of the children of Nazis. There was something about the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee. The interviews were all conducted by the child of Holocaust survivors. Something about that relationship inspires me.”
Inspiration can be found everywhere, but why write? “It’s significant to me to express my vision of the world, which is a deliberately ambiguous way of saying it. I am [not interested] in creating work that is didactic. I’m more interested in telling the individual story, the human story. Overall, I’d say I do it because I’m interested in hearing my own voice.”
Hannah trained as an actor at the National Theatre School in Montreal, but was asked to transfer to script writing. “They asked me if I’d like to switch from acting to playwriting in my second year, and I was very insulted.” Despite being disappointed that acting was not her calling, Moscovitch had the knack for writing since she was a young girl growing up in Ottawa. “I wrote in my teens and early twenties and when I was very young.” Still, being a talented writer does not make one a motivated writer. How does she motivate herself? “I often get asked that in interviews, but I struggle not to work all the time.” Is there a time of day when she’s at her best creatively? “I often work first thing in the morning before I even get out of bed. I’ll pull my computer into bed and work until I get hungry. I’ll work late at night because it’s quiet, after eleven once people have gone to bed. Sounds really fruity, but the city gets quiet. It does seem to create a sort of energy when the city is awake.”
And even after all this writing, Moscovitch admits that she does not consider her plays complete until they are published. Like a painter holds on to his masterpiece, Moscovitch refuses to sign a contract to publish her plays, constantly reworking and fine-tuning her creations. “They rarely are [complete.] Even though they’ve been mounted, I still feel the work is never done. I constantly revise.” Perhaps it’s a perfectionist’s nature, or perhaps the scrutiny of the media that motivates the revisions of her work. Moscovitch would never admit to a journalist that she reads reviews. “Mostly I do read them, but if this was a preview for a play and if I was asked that question I’d say I didn’t. I don’t like them having power over my creative process.” Even though she may not like the power the media holds, she understands that she needs to have an idea of what they’re saying about her work. “For the last round of reviews I didn’t read the reviews, I read the headlines, so I knew the general idea. People view you through the veil of it.” Moscovitch is very aware of the public nature of mounting a play and the responsibility that comes with it. She hopes the audience comes away with a pleasurable experience, whether it is cathartic, emotional or extreme.
Moscovitch has experienced success as a playwright at a young age, but that success has not come without its challenges. She describes the circumstances of her career as the most challenging aspect. “It’s not remunerative and it takes a long time to build a career. And you get reviewed, so you’re dragged through the media.” But the most rewarding aspect, Moscovitch explains, is the ability to express herself independently. “Others aren’t wholly independent and don’t get to express themselves creatively at all, and that seems awful. So I feel like those are hugely rewarding.” Moscovitch describes herself as a career writer, but admits that writing falls under the category of passion. “You have a sense that your words can in fact inspire other people. And you can, through your work, bring words and ideas and voices and philosophies and ideologies to life. And you can express them in a palatable way. We respond to narrative, it’s a great vessel to convey an idea.” With that thought in mind, we say our goodbyes and Ms. Moscovitch moves on to the next meeting that combines her job as playwright-in-residence and her passion as a writer. Our meeting was brief, but her insight was anything but.
The Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) is a Government of Canada Program introduced in the 2009 Budget to support Canadian magazines and community newspapers. It will provide $30 million dollars over the next two years to assist periodicals and will maintain existing levels of financial support to Canadian magazines and community newspapers, which is $7.75 million annually.
The CPF will support small and mid-sized titles in order to support diversity of magazines and newspapers. It is a combination of two previous funding programs: Canadian Magazine Fund and the Publications Assistance Program. The CPF will give publishers more flexibility with funding and allow them to determine where they will spend the resources. Funding will also maintain jobs in the publishing industry.
The Publications Assistance Program (PAP) is run by the Federal Government and Canada Post and is a program that assists Canadian periodicals and non-daily newspapers with offsetting their mailing costs in Canada. With PAP, publishers can keep subscription costs the same across the country because they are not paying extra mailing costs when mailing magazines across the country.
The Ontario Media Development Corporation’s (OMDC) Magazine Fund provides up to $25,000 of funding to Ontario-based magazines. In order to be eligible, publishers need to be at least 75% Canadian-owned and controlled and have a minimum of $20,000 sales revenue.
These government programs help the industry keep magazines running, which maintains jobs and ensures the existence of the Canadian magazine publishing industry in light of heavy international competition. Funding small to mid-sized magazines increases the amount of creativity, artistry and independence in the industry. However, larger publications would also benefit from more funding because they are most likely the magazines that compete with international magazines for newsstand positions and sales. The fact that the CPF is the product of an effort to streamline two funding programs shows that decreased resources may end up being allocated to funding magazines in the future. Also, some of the strict guidelines, such as with the OMDC Magazine Fund, may omit several magazines from benefiting from funding.
The nurse calls my name and I get up out of my chair without letting my hands touch the arm rests. The nurse leads me to exam room number one. I think a fresh bit of paper has been rolled over the examination bed after the last patient left. The paper doesn’t look ripped or creased; I assume it’s clean. I hop up onto the bed, careful not to touch anything left uncovered by the paper, and wait for the doctor. Since entering the walk-in clinic I’ve managed to avoid touching anything with a bare hand: I scooted inside the door behind an older gentleman, and I refrained from picking up a magazine, which, by the way, I consider to be the worst contamination culprit at doctor’s offices, walk-in clinics and hospitals. For the record, I am not a germaphobe. What I am is conscious of the amount of germs that exist in a walk-in clinic. I take care to avoid coming in contact with other people’s germs. I’m already at the clinic because of a germ, so I’m extra careful to protect myself from more…or so I thought.
Turns out one of the biggest germ offenders in the clinic could be the person I’m here to see: the doctor. Doctors unwittingly transmit bacteria and disease from one patient to the next on their hands. The lack of hand washing among doctors contributes to an increase in the spread of bacteria in medical facilities. According to Health Canada, these infections kill some 8,000 to 12,000 patients across the country every year, and cost the health care system millions of dollars. Hands spread an estimated 80 percent of common infectious diseases such as the common cold and flu, but studies show less than half of doctors and nurses wash their hands between patients.
Really? Not all doctors wash their hands after touching an ill and presumably infectious patient? Shouldn’t they know better? I try so hard to avoid other people’s germs and the germiest part of the clinic had his hands all over my swollen nymphs nodes. According to a recent article in the Hamilton Spectator, compliance to hand washing practices among doctors was 28% at ten Ontario hospitals. That’s quite a low percentage since hand washing is one of the easiest and least expensive methods in preventing the spread of pathogens.
There are several types of bacteria that could be transferred from one patient to the next. One of the common infections is Clostridium difficile, or C difficile. This infection is referred to as a superbug because of its resistance to treatment by many antibiotics as well as their quick spread in hospitals. E. coli and salmonella are two infections that could also be present on hands. They are not as worrisome as the rapid spread of superbugs, but are serious nonetheless. They cause not only food poisoning, but serious bloodstream infections that are difficult to treat because of antibiotic resistance.
Christine Wilkinson, a Quinte Health Care professional explains “Despite the obvious link between hand hygiene practices and hospital acquired infections, research shows poor hand washing compliance, with between 30 per cent and 60 per cent of hospital personnel following procedures properly.”
Ms. Wilkinson recommends that medical facilities follow the Federal Government’s Infection Control Guidelines regarding hand washing, cleaning, disinfection and sterilization. A proactive and defensive approach is recommended for patients: Minimize your stay in a medical facility, ensure anyone who makes direct contact with you has washed their hands or wears new gloves; be aware of other items, not just hands, that could contain bacteria such as stethoscopes, nurse call bells, bed rails, doctors’ ties, curtains, sinks, and toilets. These items have all been shown to potentially carry these superbugs. You must be aware of these potential objects for the transmission of infectious diseases.
How To Wash Your Hands
These recommendations are not meant to scare the public away from their regularly scheduled visits to their family doctor, to an unexpected visit to a walk-in clinic, or from entering hospitals. They are meant to educate the public about the potential risks of visiting a medical facility and how best to protect oneself.
According to Ms. Wilkinson efforts are being made to decrease the amount of infections in health care facilities. “Accreditation Canada recently promoted the adoption of formal auditing processes for hand hygiene in all Canadian hospitals.” Hospitals are also hiring Infection Control Professionals who have specific training in infection prevention and control. “They work with the entire corporation to prevent health care acquired infections by educating staff, planning and implementing infection control practices and evaluating existing health care practices,” says Wilkinson.
At my next visit to the walk-in clinic I’m still cautious of what I touch and of who touches me. However, I’m less panicked and more informed of what I should be aware of. The doctor enters the room; I tense up and wonder if he’s washed his hands. Before I could ask him if he has, he says “Hello,” turns to the sink and procedes to scrub his hands with lots of soap. I guess he heard about the recent study too.
What do you think about the link between hand washing and the spread of disease-causing bacteria? Should we really be concerned? Are we too paranoid about germs?
This is my very first post on my very first blog. I’ve never had a blog, so we’ll see what comes of it. Perhaps I’ll like it, perhaps I’ll hate it. I hope I’ll come across topics that are of interest to me and that I’ll want to blog about. I’m not sure if I’ll keep the blog when my course is finished. We’ll see….
