last night i was riding the 10 hastings bus. how can i live in this city, at this time and not talk about the olympics? so i was riding the bus along the 'notorious' downtown east side. this is no special event, i ride this bus everyday. however, last night a homeless man comes and sits down beside me, opens up his hand revels a lump of white crystal rocks and casually taps his crack into his crack carrying case. routine. hastings is crawling with the infamous west coast homeless, they own that strip of land personifying squatters rights to the max. run ins with these characters are unavoidable.
this week the olympics has rolled into town and i am discovering beef with my new dream city. my friend is doing her masters in economics and her professors at SFU are working with this 'situation' right now. of course they are all outraged. i spent the afternoon reading an angry economists blog ranting about the cash buy-in associated with a world event like the olympics. however he manages to pin point the problem perfectly. the biggest change i have noticed is the MASSIVE security lock down, cops are everywhere. this city just spent millions of dollars to 'protect' guests from all over the world from us. so i am feeling the sting of middle class world citizen. i am not dangerous, i am simply excluded [because i cant afford a $2000 ticket] and then tended out of the way with the rest of this city's residents.
i mean i am not foolish, i know the cop crack down is for my fore mentioned rock carrying homeless bus companion. but the over sized aboriginal posters boasting the slogan 'songs, community, shopping' and directing the viewer to the bay [for all my olympic needs] is certainly for me. coke has sponsored a huge canadian maple leaf prominently at the mouth of the city. as i enter downtown for work i am greeted by this over sized canadian red coke banner. hmmm. lillehammer, norway; colors white and red. then beijing, china; again red and now vancouver, canada another a red and white nation for coke to adopt, slap a morality make over on and then dress in its event appropriate slogan. we are coke red and white and we are welcoming the world.
so, i am excited. the worlds rich and privileged are descending upon my city. they will be swarming my charming cafe, cluttering my public transit and 'celebrating' my economy by shopping at none of the local stores and all of the corporate ones. i can only relate this to the pope john paul's [the second] 2002 world youth day in Toronto. it was a traveling caravan of complete craziness, and now that same stink is settling all over my beautiful ocean side life. but isn't this the stage for a fantasy of types? the scene in some over dramatized alterna-chick flick where the heroine captures the beautiful honesty of a dangerous and touchy situation. maybe i am using the olympic madness to illustrate an over saturated opinion and capitalize in my own small way on the world money making machine. i guess you will just have to stay tuned until after the commercial break. i might have something new to say, but chances are all the information was in the trailer and i am just going to string you along by rewording the same thing again and again until i finally sound like news. swarm in with your media tents and leave me some splendid decay. capitalism exploits itself, and my trigger finger is itching.
