FINDING THE HUMANITY IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER.

The views are great, but despite its setting, [Vancouver’s] downtown has the cold, generic feeling of a developer’s boom town.

— Knute Burger, “Vancouver is Shangri-Not”

I can’t help but notice how lately, anti-Vancouver articles and rants are rampant in both journalistic and blogosphere-based realms of discussion. Writers sling insults at Vancouver’s ‘vapidity,’ its coldness and its fake tendencies — and these insults are especially directed towards the city’s downtown core.

I’m all for criticism when it is constructive (as many of the anti-Olympics signage and security dialogues have been), it can be essential for fixing what’s going wrong and helping create a better world. However, the anti-Vancouver rhetoric I keep hearing from all sources is starting to remind me of a pack of cats (older cities) attacking a squirrel (Vancouver) just because he happens to have a shiny new winter coat, without actually realizing that squirrel might have had some chestnuts (good ideas) to share with everyone.

Disregarding my assumption that cats can even eat chestnuts, I’d like to defend downtown Vancouver from my own perspective — from someone who actually lives there, in the West End, on a dense urban street lined with old trees next to a city park. It is one of the most friendly, community-drenched places I’ve lived in — my street is filled with the sounds of human laughter, residents blasting obscure 90’s dance mixes and joyful dog barking at all hours of the day and night.

I think I’ve said enough in Vancouver’s defense, however. A better way to display the downtown community I have grown to love is through some photos — mine and two others — of Vancouver as I see it. Here they are.

You can find tranquil places to be alone even when you’re downtown…

Yet, a few blocks down the road - a busy urban street. Image by Flickr user ‘TPower.’

And then  you can walk down to events like the Gay Pride Parade — one of the biggest in North America.

Dogs are everywhere in the West End, especially in the summer. Image by flickr user ‘Harry2010’.

And I always find small things when I look around this area of the city that make me happy - like the christmas tree on the top of the building at the end of this alleyway.

Or like an impromptu flash-mob Zombie walk in the heart of downtown.

…Or a dog show down the block from your apartment. (image by WestEndDogShow on Flickr.)

This is the Vancouver I think of when I read stories about what downtown is to other people. Of course, each opinion is based on one’s own personal perception of reality, but I believe that other cities have a lot to admire about Vancouver’s West End and downtown core.

—Kat

What Does War Mean to You?

As Canada continues to be involved in futile (and yet unavoidable) missions in Afghanistan, and Obama evades setting a specific date for U.S. forces to leave Iraq, war has been on my mind. It will continue to plague me simply because its complexities will never cease to amaze and overwhelm any opinions I set out trying to make about it all. I have only two things to say, and they aren’t in my own words.

One is in the form of a quote. The other is in the form of images found recently which, when viewed together with the quote, conceptualize just how convoluted my feelings about war are right now. I leave the rest to you, to think about and come to your own conclusions.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is … spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children … This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity itself that hangs from a cross of iron.”

— President Dwight Eisenhower,
the first U.S. president to talk in length about the danger of North America’s Military Industrial complex.

—Kat

The Importance of Greenwash Guerrillas and Good Old Fashioned Ruckus-Raising.

So, last month during Climate Week in New York, a group of young climate activists and enthusiastic shit-starters who call themselves the “Greenwash Guerrillas” caused a ruckus by dropping a massive banner directly in the path of UN delegate motorcades and limousines. The offending banner denounced the UN’s support of the Cap and Trade system (which provides economic market-based incentives for reducing one’s carbon emissions) and generally stirred up a lot of confusion on the road.

Checking out the Greenwash Guerrilla’s blog, it looks like they’ve executed quite a few initiatives rooted in principles of civil disobedience and ruckus-raising (ideas shared by other public nuisance-providers such as the US’s Ruckus Society, Greenpeace, and the ever-amusing Yes Men.) They’ve hijacked the British Museum’s Michaelangelo exhibition, crashed the Carbon Traders Conference, and have even thrown two pies in the face of Thomas Friedman (yes, they actually dared. Unbelieving? Check out the video.)

I have very mixed feelings about direct-action groups like the Greenwash Guerrillas — I always find myself wondering if their actions actually resonate with those they are trying to convince, or whether they just ‘preach to the choir.’ The pragmatist in me is unappreciative of statements which dilute complex issues down to black-and-white principles of ‘corporation vs. citizen’. However, this being said, I also must add that despite my misgivings, I have a lot of admiration for them as well.

Why? Why do I admire groups of young people who start shit, who piss policy makers off and champion lost causes, who refuse to follow basic societal laws and norms, who yell out their ideas loud and clear, and who sometimes fail to accomplish anything beyond perpetuating already existing stereotypes about ‘young anarchists today’?

There’s pretty much one main reason. I respect the fact that groups like the Greenwash Guerrillas, whatever their politics, are actually doing something about this all. They aren’t sitting at home watching TV and bitching to their friends about how the world’s gone to shit — they’re out on the streets, making threadbare banners to fly in the faces of the world’s most powerful policymakers, dressing up in white suits, throwing homemade flyers into crowds, and baking pies to throw in the faces of economic folk heroes.

By putting themselves out there so obviously, these disobedient groups are getting directly involved in our civil society. Their passionate actions exhibit the anger, unrest, and anxiety that we all feel when we hear about recessions, climate change and global injustice. They are arrested, derided, laughed at, and sometimes hated — but they continue to exist.

In a way, I believe that youthful fringe civil-disobedience groups like the Greenwash Guerrillas are our generation’s representatives. They might not be able to provoke policy changes, and they might not ever be able to run for civic office. However, they conceptualize the ideas and opinions of thousands of silent young people and cause those ideas to EXPLODE in the public’s face — in offensive, abrasive, and often gloriously triumphant demonstrations of defiance.

— Kat

THE DIRT POSTER

New York Based artist Roland Eriner Tiangco provides an interactive approach to the display of an extremely applicable message in his project titled the ‘Dirt Poster’:

Here, the poster really speaks for itself. By manually applying ink on spot-varnished paper, the spectator takes a direct, hands on role in unveiling the pertinent statement.

—Viv

FINALLY, AN ACADEMIC ARTICLE THAT REPRESENTS OUR GENERATION AS WE TRULY ARE.

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I was just forwarded this article by a friend and I couldn’t help sharing it. In a time (Canada has a looming national election coming up) when there seems to be countless articles condemning people our age for ‘not caring enough,’ and for not getting more involved in this process, an article like this one (entitled “Youth Culture is Renewing Democracy, one Click at a Time” ) is truly a breath of fresh air.

Its amazing to see an academic-based public policy institute (specifically, CPRN- Canadian Policy Research Networks) take such a strong stance in actually DEFENDING today’s youth on topics like engagement and participation in society.

A few excerpts from their article which is based research they have done on modern civic engagement of young Canadians (believe me, I think you’ll find the excerpts worth reading, and maybe even a bit gratifying.)

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… “our researchers found that youth are not only highly engaged in global and local civic causes, organizations and initiatives, they are savvy communicators, sophisticated networkers and soundly and demonstrably committed to democracy.

“Young people define political engagement in markedly different terms from previous generations, focusing more on individual action than institutional participation.

“Young Canadians are more active in political demonstrations than their older counterparts, volunteer in higher numbers with organizations they care deeply about, mobilize impressive and effective social and political networks online and off, and are more likely to engage in “consumer citizenship” – boycotts and buycotts – as a form of political expression.

“The youth are not “uninformed” about civic life, as is often claimed, but gather and share information in highly specialized and niche communities and from alternative sources beyond the traditional broadsheets. In many ways, the youth of today are more informed and more media savvy than their parents or grandparents were at the same ages, and have higher specialized and more diverse sources of information from which they draw.

It is time for the political landscape to embrace youth as partners in civic and democratic renewal in this country… Youth want to know that their voices are heard and that their participation matters. Let’s take a lesson from young Canadians and work together to reinvigorate our democratic institutions.”

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I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you, CPRN, for conceptualizing our thoughts as young people so well, and then effectively disseminating them to a larger audience.

As a young person who has a lot of respect for the passion and drive of my peers — and for our potential to make this world a better place — I salute you!

—Kat

(images found by ache.)

LIU BOLIN the “Invisible Man”

I just so happened to come across a friend’s blog that featured an artist who takes a ‘chameleonesque’ twist on urban photography.  His name is Liu Bolin and he can work on a single photograph for up to 10 hours, perfecting his concealing coloration, using his body as a canvas to disguise himself into the background.

His ability to blend into things such as the Chinese flag, walls with graffiti, dilapidated buildings, old fences and even Tienanmen Square provokes one to think twice about everyday surroundings.  He delivers a message from an objective standpoint, directing focus to the problems of ordinary existence, by revealing truth sans embellishment.

Examples of work shown below:

Bolin said his inspiration came from feeling like a social outcast. “Some people call me the invisible man, but for me it’s what is not seen in a picture which is really what tells the story… I experienced the dark side of society, without social relations, and had a feeling that no one cared about me, I felt myself unnecessary in this world.” [via]

I think his story is what really makes his art distinctive.  His exposure to the “dark side of society” and experiences of social neglect is something many of us identify with. What I found most intriguing was that Liu Bolin’s work actually started as a protest against the government, who shut down his art studio in 2005. It’s encouraging to see once again how innovative creativity can emerge through a positive act of retaliation.

- Viv