June 21, 2011
So nearly a week later, we have established another collective “separation” identity; the “we’re not like that, that’s not us” point left and isolate.
Well we are like that.
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I also love the shift by the police chief that it may not be anarchists after all and that the people who chose to participate in the riot have — gasp — no previous criminal records.
I guess we learnt nothing from Enron. We still assume it’s just the poor and working class who commit crime. A riot whose starting point was entitlement would likely be populated by those who feel entitled.
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It’s intriguing that we’re talking about the reading of reports, the implementation of increased police forces, and how we can party publicly in the future, yet we will not address the rage. Because it’s all the Mayor’s fault. Because we’re not like that. Except we are like that.
June 20, 2011
A rush to “conserve history” (the wall that’s not a wall) today over any examination and consideration or contrast with actual history.
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The city is actively devoid of interest in its history. There are a few individuals who pay attention to it and work hard to revisit and educate and inform, but in my experience it’s often poorly attended. Occasionally I’ve seen a great hunger for it — in the one on one exchanges that occured through doing the Taxi! interventions and once at a cinema screening of a film set in Vancouver. Yet I’ve also attended films that may have vital resonance to the city and been one of a handful of people sat there.
June 20, 2011
On the theme of being and remaining involved Brian Haw has died. May he rest in peace. I was in London last year with a writer friend and we were opposite the Houses of Parliament in the tent city there and he pointed out Mr Haw and explained his protest. What a passionate and determined man he was.
“Mr Haw, 62, began his round-the-clock protest opposite the Houses of Parliament against the UK’s policy in Iraq and elsewhere on June 2, 2001.” He maintained it for 10 years.
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Co-incidentally today I was reading this piece about Orwell today and found his sense of the practical & ordinary very comforting.
June 20, 2011
Given that the people who are important to me live in a couple of different countries and not all in my present timezone I had some explaining to do on the incidents of last Weds night. I’ve been enjoying their responses and bald confusion over what took place. Wha? Then again I’ve also especially enjoyed responses when trying to give them a broader picture and described some of the nonsense rhetoric that has crept in here in the last few years, which includes bigging up the brand with daft invocations such as “World-Class City.” and how unfortunately some residents seems to have swallowed it and are currently participating (tho’ p’haps not consciously) in brand repair via compulsive apologizing.
One respondent wondered poignantly what the criteria was for being a World Class City? (Curiously now I type it, it’s awfully redolent of those tacky mugs with World’s Best Mum or World’s Best Dad on them).
Other cities just get up and get on with it in the mornings. We are active in our World-Class getting on with it. Indeed we are perhaps World-Class at getting up in the morning. The culture of pronouncement indicates a void. It also indicates a level of arrogance that refuses to pay attention to the thunderstorm rolling in or look skyward and consider the conditions that are presenting and what might form as a result.
In my mind I keep searching for the scenarios that took place on Weds night in other manifestations of my experience of daily life here. The one that does come back is that image of people standing alone and people not stepping forward to support them. A hesitancy to involve oneself. A kind of quiet reticence rather than cold indifference. And if you do involve yourself either a discomfort at the offer (resulting sometimes in a refusal to accept help) or an overwhelming response of gratitude and surprise at the expection you would.
The place I’ve observed a complete contrast to the above is in the DTES to be honest.
June 19, 2011
counter measures
What will the counter measures be to the scribblings on the plywood?
Will random pieces of plywood (even not yet purchased variety?) become new sites for written interventions? Is plywood the new monument? Does plywood even need anything written on it to warrant a photo opportunity?
This has potential for appropriation.
June 19, 2011
Anthropomorphism
Who are the people who have written on the plywood boards apologizing to?
June 19, 2011
On plywood
Here’s an online link to photos documenting the plywood scribblings (wall seems rather grandiose) I just noticed the following in red which stood out among the repetitive apology and I love my city tones. (how can everyone sound so similar when they love their city??)
HBC WAS THE PRIMARY AGENT OF CAPITALIST EXPANSION AND CONQUER OF INDIGENOUS LANDS.
Another curious thing about the wall is the role of overlap and interruption. In one series of phrases the writer appears to be apologizing to members of the hockey team,(!) or was that a red penned edit? At this point it’s incumbent upon me to point out that the sports franchise reaped the benefit of this entire shenanigans — profit wise — they’re skating on and off with mounds of cash. How much will Mike Gillis et al contribute to the repair to our public space? When collective identity becomes commodified down the lense of a team logo perhaps we need a dustpan and brush at the ready or a cash lined blocker included.
June 19, 2011
While we’ve been consumed with our own riot situation last week, I’ve been watching this story unroll in China the last few days: with nothing like the media attention.
It should be noted that Xintang is a “centre for garmet factories” and could very well be a place where the hockey shirts are manufactured.
The article mentions the requistion of land, low-level compensation, corruption, and the all round oppression of workers. It also alludes to other recent strikes.
June 19, 2011
I went to visit some of the hoarding that covered the windows broken during the riot and is covered in apparent messages of support for the city or messages of thanks and outpourings, I found reading some of it as terrifying as the riot. There is also some kind of flag project happening. The ending is firmly being scribed and hoisted on this episode without there being any real interrogation about it. We have had only gasp horror, deflection, and we’re onto the reconciliation stations.
A man passed while I was reading the words (very repetitive) and shouted out The Bay won, The Bay won. It was the most pertinent statement I read. Another collective identity has already been dreamed up by the marketing men before we’ve dealt with the ramifications of the last half hatched one that actually in part gave rise to these riots. This time it’s Van Love and we’re encouraged to hang it in our windows. But heads in the flagged sentiment of it shouldn’t have happened rather than why or what might have contributed to it happening .. onward we traipse.
Down the road the postal workers had an active picket line that was not crowded with people taking pictures of themselves beside scribblings. Given the state of organized labour and the attempts to undermine it, a picture of a picket line might actually prove a more pertinent historical recording.
Vancouver has managed to turn a riot into a tourist attraction within a few days.