The truth about slavery, and about the last five centuries of African history, is that the bloody tragedies Africans have endured were a collaboration between Africa and the West. To say this is in no way to lend support to the position that we contemporary Europeans and North Americans have no responsibility to improve Africans’ lot. It is to suggest that, ultimately, Europeans, North Americans, and Africans are moral beings, neither wholly victim nor victimizer. It is to recognize that we all are equally human.
Andrew Miller
Mississauga, Ontario
All In
Action gamblers play for the excitement of winning; they use the machines as an upper, like cocaine. Some vlts are especially dangerous for action gamblers because they have unbalanced reels, in which each of the first three reels is starved of one symbol. This hidden “crookedness” produces randomized near-misses that make the machine very exciting for the unaware player.
However, the majority of problem gamblers are escape gamblers, who play to kill pain, for a morphine-like anaesthetization. Of particular danger to these players are the New Age-themed machines with panels like church windows. These machines combine the transcendence of religion with the salve of dissociation. Losses translate into sacrifice, further enhancing spiritual transcendence. For escape gamblers, gaming venues are mechanized, commercialized religious cults.
Tim Falkiner
Former Commercial/Legal Officer,
Victorian Casino and
Gaming Authority
Melbourne, Australia
Commandment Number Nine
In a vitriolic slur against a large portion of Canadian society, Ken Alexander writes, “The International aids Conference in Toronto was partially upstaged by Stephen Harper’s non-attendance, a likely sop to Christian evangelicals who want little to do with homosexuals, premarital copulation (with condoms or without), or, for that matter, Africa’s real needs” (“Chillax, Pops,” November).
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