Another Observation About Vancouver

[mbarrick]

The other day, as I walked the two blocks from the Burrard Skytrain station home, I heard no less than six different languages being spoken and saw representatives of every race of humanity. The only thing unusual about this is that I stopped to think for a moment about how I take this for ordinary now.

Comments

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

K. I deleted the anonymous one - way to not log it, Larry.

I agree with aspects of what you are both saying. Racism in smaller towns can be more blatant - but at the same time the cards are all on the table in that kind of situation. The problems Dave mentions are indicative of the massive amount of immigration Vancouver is seeing. There simply hasn't been the time for culture shock to wear off and Vancouver is seeing similar problems to what cities in the east saw in the 19th century with Italian, Irish, and eastern European immigration - insular communities within the city, gangs, and turf wars. As well Vancouver has a unique problem not faced by those city, which is the effects of wealthy immigrants and investors capitolizing on middle-class immigrants and creating things like the real estate bubble I was talking about in my previous post.

I have an optimism, based on a number of things, that Vancouver in the 21st century (current growing pains notwithstanding) is on the brink of becoming what New York was to the 20th century and London was the the 19th.

On another note, the term "First Nations" is starting to bug me. Other than the empires of Central and South America, most of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America did not have anything resembling nation-states. Talking about "First Nations" is equivalent to trying to talk about pre-Roman Celtic Europe in terms of nations. There were no nations. There weren't even city-states. There were tribes and clans with loose alliances. Other than those exceptions that were civilised (i.e. building and living in permanent cities) and had those cities organised by a central government, it's a misnomer to talk about "nations".

[sovietnimrod.livejournal.com]

the term "First Nations" is starting to bug me.

Same here - I staunchly refuse to use it or any other touchy-feely PC-terminology. The way I see it, we're all on the same planet so everyone comes from a 'first' nation of some sort. But the politically-correct "multicultural industy" here in Canada is oblivious to such general social patterns of change generally known as "migration" and / or "conquest" because it makes their bleeding hearts all sad and in a tizzy.

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

i use the term mostly because it bugs people...ha ha...