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Why terrorism works, and what we can do about it

> Why our best defence is to live our lives

Rebecca Peterson Staff Writer

was seven years old when I

walked into my living room before school and saw the World Trade Center fall on TV.

My house was right under a flight path, not too far from YVR, so all morning I heard planes flying low overhead, desperate to land. In class, children who didn’t know much about the world discussed what had happened in hushed whispers. The teachers all looked grim. That night, I asked my parents if Vancouver was going to be attacked next.

This is why terrorism works.

Safety, security, and control. These are all invisible things that humans have a deep-seated need to feel comfortable in their daily lives. When war breaks out overseas, we can tell ourselves that we are safe. When acts of terrorism happen in “third world” countries, we can tell ourselves that it will not happen to us. It is far, far more likely that you will be hurt or killed driving your car to or from work or school every day than it is for you to be killed ina

terrorist attack, but car crashes do not create the same pervasive atmosphere of fear that terrorist acts thrive off of.

Terrorism has two goals: to scare us, yes, but also to divide us. Terrorism serves to create a stigma, a strawman that we can point to. After the attacks in Brussels, many were quick to leap to the phrase “Radical Islam” as a target for righteous rage, even turning a wary eye on the Syrian refugees we've finally opened our borders to. “Not every Muslim is a terrorist,” some have argued,

“but any Muslim could be.”

Any Muslim, certainly. Any Christian as well. Any Atheist, any Canadian, any American. The world is a broad place with many horrible people in it. In the history of

where my family is from, terrorists were white Catholics convinced they were fighting to regain their country. And my family, also made up of

Image via thinkstock

white Catholics, feared and hated them the same as any other sane person caught in the middle of a bloody war would. In my mind, it’s easy to go to the Troubles in Ireland in the ‘6os and ‘7os as a point of access to the plight that many Muslims are caught up in today. The Syrian refugees that many seem to enjoy pointing fingers and crying “ISIS” at are running from the murderers who attacked Brussels, Istanbul, Ankara, Paris, and so many other places. Asa friend of mine told me recently, many Muslims do not call ISIS by that name as they do not consider them Islamic—rather, they call them “Daesh,” another acronym of the group’s Arabic name that closely resembles words such as “Daes” and “Dahes,” meaning “one who crushes something underfoot” and “one who sows discord.” Given that Daesh has threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone who calls them such, it’s safe to say that this is not the sentiment of a people who support terrorists. If we turn on each other out of fear, and if we condemn a group of people one billion members

How virtual reality will change our world

> What this new technology means for the masses

Shea O’Grady Contributor

y now, most of us are familiar

with the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality (VR} headset that changes your field of vision along with the movements of your head and provides users with an intense visual and audio experience. But what are the true implications of this technology? At the moment, most virtual reality headsets are fairly expensive and not used for much else other than gaming, but as the technology becomes increasingly mainstream firms have begun experimenting with other exciting possibilities. This is why I want to personally go on record in 2016 with my prediction that this is the future of the Internet and the new face of our social media.

The possibilities for VR are literally endless. Perhaps one of the most interesting VR projects to date is the work being done at the University of South Carolina,

where researchers are using virtual reality technology to treat PTSD symptoms in American Veterans. The technology allows therapists to expose soldiers to

a lifelike combat environment

in a controlled setting. This

study demonstrates the creative possibilities and power of this tool by asking us to imagine ourselves in a digital environment that we can navigate in the most human way possible, similar to the way we do in the real world.

But how will this technology affect the masses? The first answer is social media. Oculus Rift was acquired by Facebook in March of

2014 with the intention of pairing this technology with their social platform. Last month, Facebook announced a partnership with Samsung, who has developed their own VR headset that can be used in conjunction with mobile devices.

Imagine a form of Internet powered by Facebook in which you can find yourself in a 360-degree environment. You can interact with other people in the same environment as you, and do it all in real time. This means socializing online could look something like it did pre-Internet. A group of people actually getting together and communicating in

Photo illustration

the same room, having a normal conversation.

Another fascinating opportunity for Facebook and VR is the business implications. A platform like this has the potential to obliterate Skype and enhance the ease of virtual organizations. You could meet with clients or coworkers in a digital boardroom and give a presentation with the tools literally encoded in to your environment. Or perhaps businesses may open VR internet stores. Picture the future of Amazon and e-commerce being a similar experience to walking through a store in the mall, looking at products and displays.

strong for the actions of a few that have co-opted their religion as

an excuse to murder and destroy, then we are doing exactly what terrorists wish us to do. There were many Muslims working in the Trade Center who died on 9/u. Many Irish Catholics were among the thousands killed by IRA members during the Irish Troubles. Terrorist acts in the name of one doctrine or another have never discriminated between their targets and those who they claim to fight for. Pretending otherwise is helping no one but the terrorists themselves.

So what can we do?

We can reach out to one another. We can refuse fear in the face of such unimaginable idiocy. We can laugh, we can go to school, go to work, travel, and make friends. We can open our arms to people running from killers and a war they did not choose, and we can accept them without doubt or suspicion. We can call “ISIS” “Daesh,” and we can refuse those who seek to turn us against each other.

That is how we regain control. And that is how we begin to feel safe.

Although most VR headsets carry with them a hefty price tag, it’s interesting to see how the technology is increasingly becoming mainstream and adapting to the mobile marketplace. Beyond the Samsung Gear VR which is built specifically for Samsung mobile phones, Google has created a product that can turn almost any smart phone into a virtual headset. Google Cardboard is a sort of VR headset and origami hybrid. The incredibly simple cardboard headset features a compartment similar to a phone case. The simple construction and inexpensive materials of this headset means that it has a price of about $6, making it accessible to the masses and easily integrated with the mobile phone market.

Who knows how things will look 5-10 years down the road. We would all be wise to keep an eye on VR as it develops. We might soon find ourselves using it in our daily lives and wondering how we ever lived without it.