Mezbauddin Mahtab's Blog, page 10

My Problem with the #metoo Movement

Let me just say straight off the bat that I am not an ardent feminist. Too often feminism today is used as a cudgel to spread hatred against men, organized religion and the clergy, as well as promote rampant deviant sexual behaviour and norms. I am a feminist when it comes to equal pay for equal work, equal legal rights under a secular legal system, and a workplace free from unwanted sexual harassment. However, too often nowadays feminism is much broader than that, and encompasses such radica...

World Cup 2018 - Semi Final Predictions

So it has come down to this. After 32 nations, only 4 remain. These 4 teams each have two games left. They will each will play the semi final, and then depending on the result will either play the meaningless third fourth match, or the all important once-in-a-lifetime final.

You can take a look at my quarter final predictions. I correctly managed to predict three out of the four semi finalists. So here are the semi-final lineups.

Belgium vs France
My pick: France

Everyone is talking about Belgiu...

World Cup 2018 - Quarter Final Predictions

So I had a 50% success rate in the Round-of-16 predictions. Which means analysis aside, I could have just flipped a coin - this is s a great example of the science of probability. Now let's get to the last 8 teams standing.

France vs. Uruguay
Winner: France

This is like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Offense vs Defence. This is very hard to call as the teams are almost equally matched. France has a great selection of fast, young strikers while Uruguay has a pair of experie...

World Cup 2018 - Round of 16 Predictions

So the group stages are over, and the knockouts begin tomorrow. Before I give my Round-of-16 predictions, let's see how I did over all with my group stage predictions.

Group A (predicted): Uruguay, Egypt; (actual): Uruguay, Russia

To be honest, I made the Egypt prediction before Mo Salah got injured in the Champions League final, so he was a non-factor for Egypt's first game. He managed to score in the games he did play, so one wonders what would happen had he been 100% fit. Then again, Egypt l...

Brooks Farm - Good Day Out with Kids

As summer is here and the weather is gorgeous, we are always keen to find out things to do with kids outdoors, even if it is Ramadan.


So what if it's hot and we can't drink, we can take the kids out for a picnic. Summer is something rare here and we had a good stretch of nice weather in May.







One of the places we took the kids out was to Brooks Farm. It's about half an hour drive up north, and the farm has a lot of activities for kids.




You can meet with some animals, take a wagon ride on the vast...

Did dumping Patrick Brown cost the PCs?

I am the perfect undecided voter.

I like the local Liberal candidate in my riding, but I am extremely unhappy with the Liberals (or, as I call them, Lieberals). McGuinty (well, McGuilty) looked straight into our eyes and said there will be no new taxes, and then proceeded to levy a health "premium". And did our healthcare increase as a result? No! Our eye care went away, and then our hospitals are reduced to "hallway medicine". When Wynne came, we thought we would be spared from the scandals...

World Cup 2018 - Group Stage Predictions

Group A: (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay)

Host countries usually do well in the World Cup. Even USA got out of the group (with a surprise, and later tragic, win over Columbia) in 1994. Remember Korea's magical run in 2002, and Japan qualifying for the second stage as well? However I don't expect Russia to repeat those feats. Uruguay will easily top this group, but expect Egypt's Mo Salah to carry them through. Maybe it's my romanticism of being a Salah fan, but I don't think Russia has i...

The Power of Voice

Take a look at this picture.
For many of you, this might not be such a big deal. Here's a food booth at a cafeteria and they have halal meat. So common here in Toronto.


But this is not Toronto. This is a city way up in the north of Ontario. Now let met tell you the story of the power of the voice that leads to this picture.

When I moved here in Canada, not only were halal stores far and few in between, but food and religious services in campuses across Canada were not very minority-friendly. In...

Cherry Blossom, Spring 2018 in Toronto

As winter sunsets and heralds the dawn of spring (and then summer), the weather can change drastically in Toronto. You would remember we had an ice storm in mid-April and the landscape was tundra-like. That is all gone now, and one of the first true signs of spring (and the oncoming summer) are the cherry blossoms.


A cherry blossom is the flower of a cherry tree (usually in Canada it's the Japanese Sakura tree). The flowering of the Sakura trees is spectacular, but peak bloom (typically in lat...

Visiting Cuba for the First Time

Everyone in Canada needs a break from our (seemingly) never ending winter.

I was of the type who takes vacations to sight-see and discover new cities, but this winter my family decided to take a sunny vacation.

We were not alone; Canadians do it by the hundreds of thousands. After debating for some time, we decided on Cuba.

Why Cuba? a) it was cheaper than other sun vacations b) it was a short flight away c) it had all inclusive so we didn't need to worry about restaurants etc.


People had warn...