The Last Cookie

When I started this blog, I rationalized my chosen blog name by saying that my thoughts are worth not just “a penny, but a whole cookie”, and not just any kind, “the chewy chocolate chip kind”. Who would have known that the views I would express on this blog would be so extreme that they may even be hard to digest by some people who may hold neutral or opposing views. Well, what can I say, decadent cookies (due to their high fat content) have slow digestibility!

Upon reading over my five previous blog posts, I noticed one very prominent theme in my blogging style. This was that I always write about healthcare by grounding it in personal experiences. My reasons behind this writing style are to capture the reader’s attention and also to present the week’s theoretical leanings in more practical manner. This was one of the main shifts that I noticed in my blogs. My first blog about the Live Right Now campaign was based on my opinion only (not based on evidence or experience). Hence, upon revisiting it, I feel like I can refute my own argument. Reading my own post is giving me the urge to return to those class discussions in which this campaign was discussed, and hear their side of the story as well. Other consecutive posts (in which my opinion is based on real life experiences) are much more believable to me. They evoke the same emotion in me as I had when I was writing them because I am reminded of the times those experiences took place and can relate it to my opinion of that topic. I commend myself for changing my writing style so early because people reading these blog posts may have understood my opinions better after understanding my story and knowing where I was writing from. Grounding our opinions into some sort of experience when writing on a medium which is read by people who do not personally know us, seen us, or heard us; can help establish legitimacy of our opinion and may attract people who have had similar experiences.

By revisiting my blogs, I have also noticed that I tend to be very cynical about the various ways through with community development efforts are being implemented. The reasons I present for my pessimism are that community development is not being placed in the areas where people are in greatest need for it. An underlying question which is the foundation of almost all of my posts is that why are we putting funding towards areas which already developed or people who already have the access?

Meanwhile the community healthcare efforts are still subpar for those who are actually in need. Hence, the idea of community based health care is still very young and needs much more planning and refinement in order to mature and appropriately cater to all the needs of the community dwellers and the reduce the existing gap of accessibility. My opinion overall is that some basic and realistic measures must be taken before we as the community look towards our secondary needs because many people out there are still striving to achieve their primary needs (i.e. safer parks need to be made in more areas before we fund for building ovens in existing parks).

One criticism I do have about my standpoint is that my strong views have hindered my ability to view community based efforts impartially. I seem to have overlooked the fact that many countries and regions do not even promote the idea of community development as well as Canada does. We are lucky to have these small scale programs which bring individuals together and give rise to potential unity that may cause changes in our health care system. Although these programs such as community kitchens may seem unfruitful to me, they still are working towards bringing together a community of immigrants who are coming with newer needs for healthcare. These newer needs have more potential to be heard if a group voices them. We are fortunate for having a system which promotes small steps towards healthcare changes and all of these minute steps are accumulating and gradually making Canada a better place to live.

To conclude, I would say that I have learnt a lot about; my writing style, the manners of writing on the blogosphere, my opinions, and also community based health care through my blogging experience. It was an amazing experience, reading the thought processes of people whom I have seen on a daily basis, yet have not gotten to know. We made our own little community which shows us that together we can come up with great ideas over health care issues. I hope that we have the time, resources, and drive to implement them once we start our professional careers in the field of healthcare. Finally, I may continue to write on this blog if I come across another infinitely curious moment. Yet for now, I will take a hiatus because I need to bake some low-fat cookies to stash away for exam-time fuel.

Blog #5: Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dilemma

One fine Saturday morning last summer, I was looking through the thick stack of flyers in the newspaper, hoping to find a good deal on my favorite cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I looked in the thin yellow No Frills flyer, the green themed Sobey’s flyer, and the Loblaws one too. All of these stores are walking distance from my home and it would take a maximum of 15 minutes to have that cereal box in my hand! Not that I was so desperate to buy cereal, but you get my point.

The next day I took a stroll down to Loblaws for my mission and to my surprise, a Longos sign was being put up right across the street from it! So was a sign for Rexall pharmacy. It truly did not make sense to me at first. There were literally 3 grocery stores already in our vicinity, not to mention 2 large Shoppers Drug Marts. So what was up corporate gods? It seemed like they forgot to take a quick look around our neighborhood before bringing in new chains. Sure, some of these corporations may be competing, but would they not be more profitable elsewhere?

So, a few months later I went to the grand opening of this Longos and it was like a carnival in there! They had free samples of fruits, bakery items, an open salad bar, chefs giving out pizza samples, a Starbucks, you name it and it was there. Their produce turnover was also very fast so all the produce was in pristine condition while you could get the actual ripe bananas at a reduced price. Score! I started going there with my mother more often. Yes, mostly for their exquisite bakery foods but try to understand, I just cannot deprive my sweet tooth.

Eventually, the competition phase between Loblaws, Sobeys, No Frills, and Longos dwindled down. Many people in my neighborhood were seen back in their natural habitat (whichever supermarket or drugstore they were familiar with initially), and the new guy, Longos put a hold on their free goodies and bought their prices up to their normal range. No one really profited too much. At least not in terms of health. So as health practitioners in training what are these GIS (Geographic Information Systems) we learnt about? Were they used? I recall that governmental and non-governmental organizations use such systems to determine the locations in need of resources, particularly those related to health. Was my town overlooked (or underlooked for that matter)? Or is the answer to this curious case is that corporate culture and business competition is more important than the determinants of health. With the vast number of health inequities existing in our country, is it possible to ignore the determinants of health and give in the corporate fights?

I have seen neighborhoods which are bound to only one supermarket and have to share among an excessively overflowing population. In a recent seminar, one of my peers was telling us that you would see people in her neighborhood bring groceries on the TTC because supermarkets were plainly inaccessible. This made me think. What if I was not fortunate enough to live in a community like mine. I might rather go to my local Tim Hortons and get a coffee and a donut rather than get pushed and shoved on the subway just to get a new carton of milk or fruit for snack! Communities need to be carefully planned out with prioritizing the needs of the residents, not the corporations.