this is…

This is

A Poem, written on
a daytime planner
in Seattle, in a bar,
in the rain, with a
friend, who is underage,

and probably wondering, day-
dreaming, what the fuck
we are doing here, in the
absence of sunlight, or
strategy or stablility, or foresight, or
a social safety net, which
has been whittled away by

a pioneering spirit and
fiscal responsibility, because
Jesus would have wanted it this way,
even though he lives in
Galilee.

It’s full of arctic magic.

more troubles.

the trip is going well, but my life just doesn’t seem to get any better back home. with every passing minute, i have less and less reason to return to vancouver.

and to be honest, my life might be better if i didn’t. a summer in san francisco would be unreal. at the very least it might keep me from sinking back into a rut,  regardless of the genuinely kind things that mr. guy babineau tells me in private.

on bc politics.

we have elected gordon campbell’s liberals to a third straight majority. congratulations are in order to the man, i suppose, but i wouldn’t shake his hand too hard. it’s not like carole james was a very hard opponent. after all, i’m not sure how you can win such a decisive victory after losing the leaders’ debate miserably.

y’see, as much as they will refuse to admit it, the NDP and the liberals are pretty much the same. a few months ago, i had lunch with an old friend, an insider with the liberal party. we agreed that the main difference between the liberals and the NDP are who is paying them off.

STV was a failure, sure. but it didn’t have to be. couldn’t the big parties have stepped up to the plate? couldn’t they have both campaigned on behalf of fairness? hell, the NDP love to pretend that the liberals think that they govern by divine grace: if that were so, maybe the liberals could just do as they did back in the early ’50s and change the electoral system unilaterally. of course, that would be rich.

here’s what sucks about canada. we are the worst combination of individualism and communalism that could possibly exist in the free world. we are so spoiled that we don’t even want to risk anything on something that could be construed as being more fair. no, instead we are confident that the government will do everything for us as we like, right? of course not!

maybe i’m just upset that my neighbourhood will be overrun by traffic in the next few years as a result of this. maybe i’m upset that translink’s funding crunch is still going to happen.

or maybe i’m starting to understand a bit more about america, and why i’ve started to fall in love with this place…just a bit.

fucking UBC!

i hate the UBC administration. so. fucking. much.

i’m in america…

so keep in touch with me while i’m on the road, going as far as public transit will take me.

check out the i-5 chronicles. you won’t be  disappointed.

yet another project done!

this time, it’s another map.

it’s not quite my magnum opus, but it’s a start.

what vancouver needs is a schematic map of bus routes.

an open letter to carole james.

dear carole,

i’m writing to you as someone who has voted ndp in the past for a variety of reasons.

your environmental policy is – forgive the term – garbage. while industrial pollution must be curbed, let’s be reasonable. industrial pollution should be tackled, sure. however, your party’s assertion that irresponsible industrialists are single-handedly responsible for climate change in bc is laughable.

look at it this way. you not only oppose the carbon tax, but you also support the gateway project. not that you haven’t criticised it, to be fair, but your criticism revolves around who should fund the new port mann bridge. you do not oppose the expansion of highways in the region. by your party’s silence, i am forced to assume that you support the project. sure, you speak of transit, but you could also propose to build a transit-only bridge at a fraction of the cost, as well as fund what has been called in the local media as a “light-rail metropolis” in the lower fraser valley, instead of dismantling decades worth of work in ensuring the quality of life in the region remains high.

don’t get me wrong: i am not a fan of gordon campbell, nor am i a supporter of his party. also, i am very supportive of the work that ms. kwan, my mla, has done. however, i will be voting for neither the ndp nor the liberals in this election. i cannot support a party with a platform that risks to undo one of the most significant shifts in environmental policy in north america.

i hope you take these words to heart. with just a few alterations in your platform  – albeit large ones – i might change my vote.

yours sincerely,

m.

dune, the novel.

i’ve been a quiet fan of science-fiction for as long as i can remember. there was something about the possibility of the genre that really drew me in, as it was usually linked to some kind of social structure that was inherently familiar. thus, it struck me much more profoundly than any kind of fantasy story based in the supernatural.

that being said, the supernatural continues to exert its influence on science-fiction. to me, this seems counter-intuitive: while magic fused with technology can make for excellent narrative, it creates an inherent contradiction in that human matters are governed by some kind of deity or deities who struggle to be known with no real reason as to why they act as they do.

maybe that’s why i really like dune by frank herbert. it is really a science-fiction novel in the most cursory sense of the term. it can probably be more accurately described as “political fiction” – not unlike brave new world or nineteen eighty four.

for all of the talk of destiny and prophecy, herbert creates these within a humanistic framework, with detailed reasons for why a certain way of thinking persists in his universe. there is no god in his story, at least not one that escapes explanation as the product of human need. case in point: the bene gesserit, a class of powerful female political guides, derive as much power from their training as from the legends around them that they have created. none of this power, however, comes from a higher power. instead, it – along with the powers of many other characters in the novel – come from the ubiquitous spice melange, a drug that extends perspectived prescience to the user. as it is the most valuable substance in the galaxy – all interstellar travel is made possible due to the spice – it sets the characters neatly in place in a story where economics and politics run tightly together.

although star wars will always remain dear to me, the concept of “the force” remains deeply problematic. perhaps the reason why it became such a powerful franchise compared to dune is because it better taps into the archetype of a subject being governed by an omniscient power. where lucas embraces this, and roddenberry suggests it (but allows the audience to come to their own conclusions), herbert passively rejects this.

and maybe that is why it never succeeded: when so much of science-fiction depends on escapism, herbert does not allow this. he forces us to look deep and hard into ourselves and, in the process, question if we are indeed ready to inherit the future.

a joke that will make sense only to british columbian politico-geeks.

question: what do you get when you put carole james’ supporters and gordon campbell’s supporters together?

answer: neo-liberals!

—

for those of you who don’t get the joke, just keep in mind that the only real difference between the bc ndp and the bc liberals is who is paying them off. in terms of actual policy, for ordinary folks like you or me, there’s no difference.

i’ll go into detail about this later, but suffice it to say, i’m voting green this election.

eight billion well spent dollars.

it’s hard to believe, but the american government has taken a bold step to reduce america’s dependence on fossil fuels. as part of the economic stimulus package, $8 billion is being earmarked to improve regional and intercity rail transportation. he is doing something that, for over forty years, has been allowed to rot and decay.

the part of the president’s speech that is the most interesting (around the 2:30 mark) is where he describes stations in city centres…and a traveller being able to take convenient public transit to their final destination.

this isn’t just about rail. this is about using the free market to change the face of american cities for the better…and to thus start to wean people off the gas pump.

to be frank, for all the square kilometres of national parks and transit fare subsidies that governments can offer, these $8 billion dollars will probabaly work harder for the environment over the long term than any other initiative the american government has likely ever proposed.

there is no question that the fabled railroads of past eras are gone forever. most of the transcontinental trains – such as the fabled california zephyr, running from chicago to san francisco – that have since been replaced by air travel will remain vestiges of a bygone time. however, that is not the issue. what is needed is to replace the car and the airplane for those short- to medium-distances.

i thought that it was amazing that president obama thanked queers in his acceptance speech. i was taken aback when he acknowledged atheists in his inaugural speech. at this point, i’m simply floored.

this man is proving that he is the one who will give americans a reason to be truly proud of themselves. such is the difference between pride and hubris.