Let’s be clear from the outset that “Raphael Alexander” is a work of fiction. I regret to inform you of this inconvenient truth as it was a rather lovely deception (pictures of the wife and little tiddlers gamboling about the lower mainland and everything!) but it’s a big fraud. The posturing to create a semblance of verisimilitude was/is entirely FAKE.
Bear that in mind when reading his posts and comments…
Canadians do, in fact, fear losing their culture to the continued heavy influx of immigrants. I know I certainly don’t want to live in a foreign country. I want to live in Canada. And yet every day Canada looks less like it’s supposed to be.
Well, la-di-da, Mr.White Supremacist… Pray tell what the appearance of Canada is “supposed to be” and, at the same time, be sure to regale us with your cockamamie tales of “heteronormative” behaviour while you’re at it. Good grief… what an awful lot of disgusting slime lurks down Wisteria Lane…
84 Comments
November 10, 2008 at 6:12 am
little baby cracker pants is a fraud? hahaha. why am i not shocked to hear that?
November 10, 2008 at 6:14 am
heh. i used to worry that you’d think i was being too strident with ralphie on your blog.
now, what’s this “fraud” charge? is it zuzu again?
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 6:28 am
KEv — “Too strident”…
What are these strange words of which you speak?
November 10, 2008 at 6:56 am
Raphael has always tried to represent himself as some “moderate” Conservative.. but I think that cloak of deception has been ripped to shreds with these blogposts. He’s no better then Shaidle or Kate with the attitudes he holds.
November 10, 2008 at 6:57 am
I banned him from my own site about a year ago. I’ve always felt I was ahead of my time.
November 10, 2008 at 8:47 am
If he wants Canada to look the way it is “supposed” to, I guess he wants all us white people to move away and give the land back to the people we stole it from.
November 10, 2008 at 9:47 am
But… but… but [he sputters] the Indians had a backwards and stagnant culture, we *helped* them by taking their land and destroying their culture and giving them whiskey and spallpox infested blankets!… really… it’s a true fact…
>laffs< As if White supremecist, mouth-breathing culture *isn’t* “backwards and stagnant”…
November 10, 2008 at 9:49 am
>coffcoff<
November 10, 2008 at 9:50 am
well *that* didn’t work…. replace spallpox with smallpox
November 10, 2008 at 10:16 am
As interesting as it was as an experiment, I am frankly relieved to be rid of the man as a co-blogger. The occasional sense he made on purely political issues just didn’t compensate for the feeling of needing a long, hot shower every time he went on about ‘dirty immigrants’.
Sadly, this kind of cover is used by far too many Canadians who pretend to themselves and others that a) there is nothing inherently racist about xenophobia, and b) anti-immigrant sentiments are somehow a more ‘acceptable’ form of bigotry than, say, white sheets and burning crosses.
November 10, 2008 at 10:19 am
Scott — I’m inclined to think that a nasty little bundle of hate like Shaidle who’s fairly upfront about the matter, may perhaps be somewhat morally superior than a deceitful phony pedaling the same loathsome race-baiting, homophobic crap under the pretense of being an “ambidextrous” moderate. There’s something quite insidious about the latter imho.
Pogge — Bonus points for being ahead of the curve (as usual).
November 10, 2008 at 10:42 am
Jennifer — I suppose we can take some amusement from the fact that he’s wound up living in one of the most ethnically diverse, immigrant-rich cities in Canada (albeit in a mostly white, upper income enclave).
November 10, 2008 at 10:58 am
As interesting as it was as an experiment, I am frankly relieved to be rid of the man as a co-blogger. The occasional sense he made on purely political issues just didn’t compensate for the feeling of needing a long, hot shower every time he went on about ‘dirty immigrants’.
I read that a few times blog. It was an interesting experiment….
As a visible minority, I find it funny when a person tells me to go back from where I came from. “Toronto?” Seriously, that’s where I was born.
November 10, 2008 at 11:10 am
Gayle — I simply cannot imagine the degree of arrogant hubris it must have taken to have written that. As something of a “dirty immigrant” (albeit a white one, from England no less) myself, I’ve never quite understood this sentiment. Perhaps one needs to actually experience the feeling of being “a stranger in a strange land” to fully appreciate the anomic sensation that arises from being uprooted and rudely displaced. It’s something that I’ve never quite entirely forgotten all these many years on, so I can quite easily empathize with those who find themselves similarly bewildered at a later age.
November 10, 2008 at 11:31 am
Apart from the visceral sense of disgust, another reason for righteous anger about this kind of crap from too many BT fruitloops is it makes the intelligent debate on immigration that Canadians old and new are entitled to divisive, polemical and all but impossible. There are fruitloops on the other side too, but that’s for another day.
November 10, 2008 at 11:51 am
Immigration is a delicate issue, one that comes with benefits and problems, both of which must be discussed reasonably.
I suppose it depends on how Raphael defines “Canada”. To me, it’s always been a fiction anyway, because Canada is not a real country, without any real cohesion among provinces, etc.
We must also be careful to distinguish two things in a statement like “I don’t want to live in a foreign country”:
a) The race or colour of a person’s skin does not determine whether Canada is still Canada or not. People can be yellow, green or purple, worship one god or many, and still be Canadian in every respect of the word (whatever it means).
b) What does matter, though, is that the country remain functional (for what it’s worth). This means that immigrants must be able to communicate in at least one of our two official languages. If you can’t speak the language of the country where you reside, you may as well be mute — it becomes a disability, which isn’t helping you or the host country. Language is our common denominator. Look at Toronto and its various ghettoes where it’s now impossible, as a “Canadian”, to order a cup of coffee without resorting to gestures and baby talk because the server on the other side of the counter doesn’t understand a word of English. This is counterproductive and, in fact, creates a lot of frustration that can lead to racism.
So, in a nutshell, let’s modify the old saying “When in Rome do as the Romans do …” to “When in Rome speak as the Romans do”. As long as we all (i.e., born and naturalized Canadians) have a common language or two in which to communicate with each other, we’ll be alright. Trouble and friction (again, such as in Toronto) is the direct result of people who can’t (or won’t) communicate with each other.
Other than that, let them be whatever they want to be — in cultural, religious or whatever terms.
November 10, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Werner, that is BS. Many, many immigrants have come here without language skills and did well. We’ve got to get over this really quite intolerant notion that immigrants have to be fully self-sufficient net gains the moment their plane lands. It’s an uneven process full of stresses and false starts that takes a generation to bear fruit fully.
November 10, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Look at Toronto and its various ghettoes where it’s now impossible, as a “Canadian”, to order a cup of coffee without resorting to gestures and baby talk because the server on the other side of the counter doesn’t understand a word of English.
Werner… I don’t speak anything other than English, and I’ve never had a problem ordering or buying anything in Toronto, even in the cultural ghetto. Heck, in university, after class I used to go with my friends to the Chinatown district. No baby talk or gesturing.
November 10, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I didn’t say they had to be “self-sufficient net gains” the minute they step off the plane (although Australia does it quite successfully and therefore rules).
But when people live here for five, ten or twenty years and still can’t speak our language, something is clearly wrong with them, and they are not “Canadian” in my book.
November 10, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Sharon,
Well, when I lived in Toronto, in my part of town I was almost the only English-speaking person left, and order a cup of coffee was possible through hand gestures only.
November 10, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Hmmm. I have the same experience at Starbucks, but it’s not for a lack of the same language, more just that I don’t care to “get” the weird, cryptic “lingo” they like to affect…
November 10, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Well, when I lived in Toronto, in my part of town I was almost the only English-speaking person left, and order a cup of coffee was possible through hand gestures only.
I guess our experiences negate each other.
On a personal level, my parents used to run a store, and there was the automatic assumption that they couldn’t speak English from some customers because of the fact we are a visible minority. My mother actually speaks three languages quite fluently.
November 10, 2008 at 12:35 pm
My mother actually speaks three languages quite fluently.
And yes, one of those languages is English. (Just to avoid any confusion.)
November 10, 2008 at 12:42 pm
“I have the same experience at Starbucks…. the weird, cryptic ‘lingo’ they like to affect”
i fucking refuse to call a small a “tall”.
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 12:48 pm
But when people live here for five, ten or twenty years and still can’t speak our language, something is clearly wrong with them, and they are not “Canadian” in my book.
One set of my great grandparents came to Canada from Poland in the early 1900s and they never learned to speak English. So fuck off Weiner Patels.
November 10, 2008 at 12:57 pm
//
November 10, 2008 at 1:01 pm
i smell a 4effer….
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 1:31 pm
“Pardon him, Theodotus, he is a Barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are laws of nature.”
–G.B. ShawCaesar and Cleopatra.
November 10, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Hmmm…..a guy that goes to the same pub my husband and I go to speaks English – yup, he’s Scottish and his brogue is so heavy we just keep smiling when he talks and he smiles back.
My maternal grandfather was Scottish and had an accent but he was from Aberdeen and the brogue wasn’t so strong.
My girlfriend is a Newfie and when she and another friend of ours got married – her brothers came up from NFLND……they spoke English, but we could hardly understand what they were saying – but boy were they fun at a party.
November 10, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Werner, BS again. My wife’s family emigrated from Greece in the post-war decade. The English of her mother’s many family and friends, all proud Canadians, tends to range from limited and heavily accented and to non-existent. They worked for decades within the community as individual proprietors, property developers, etc. and rarely had to speak English or French, so they didn’t. Their children are almost all university grads and successful professionals. See a problem there? The same thing is obviously happening in today’s Asian, Chinese, African and Middle-Eastern communities. It’s called immigration, not head-hunting.
November 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm
i had a brother-in-law from georgia. i couldn’t understand a goddam word that cracker ever mumbled. pretty sure it was english.
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hey RT,
Sorry about my nasty tone last evening. Sometimes I just don’t have the energy to play nice with the little shits trying to justify their prejudices while they go after other people’s freedoms.
Off topic, but I recall you expressing respect for Howard Dean. He announced today that he won’t run again for DNC chair. He is keeping the promise he has long made to only serve one term. Good for him, and so good to see his efforts have been rewarded and recognized at long last.
Here’s a brief article about his announcement:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081110/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_dean;_ylt=AjI3eMi2akpwyxWb6tO4eoqs0NUE
November 10, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Joseph — No problem. I can totally relate to that. I just get to the end of my wick some days and have little interest in being Mr. Nice Guy all the time. Fuck that noise.
Thanks for the info on the good doctor. When he popped up in that TPM compilation the other day I felt a bit remiss for not having posted something after the election thanking him for his tireless and valiant efforts at the helm of the DNC. Not that it matters what some obscure blogger in Canada thinks in that regard, but he’s an admirable public servant in my estimation and there’s some small amount of satisfaction in seeing him effectively vindicated in such a resounding fashion by the results last week. There aren’t too many politicians that I’ve unabashedly fallen in love with over the years, but he would be one of them. Dave Barrett being another — the best leader the federal NDP never had!
November 10, 2008 at 2:25 pm
KEv — i had a brother-in-law from georgia. i couldn’t understand a goddam word that cracker ever mumbled. pretty sure it was english.
Was he named Boomhauer by any chance?
November 10, 2008 at 3:46 pm
When I lived in England and worked at a store in Covent Garden, I once had a customer refuse to be served by me, accusing me of being unable to speak English. I did not know a “byro” was a “pen”.
November 10, 2008 at 3:47 pm
He was a radical & universalist right-winger from the day I first read him. We clashed many times on many issues.
Canada was always meant to be a nation of disparate peoples, religions, and regions – united only by a common allegiance to the Crown.
As George Grant pointed-out many times, the real conservative knows that the universal is an impossibility in a place like Canada. We are a nation of particularists.
Sir John A. Macdonald may have hoped for the development of a national consciousness, but he never really deluded himself that it would happen.
Canada was always about people choosing to live a life of Peace, Order, and Good Government under that benign political force called “the Crown.”
Canadians do not agree on much, but we also agree fundamentally on certain fundamentals and it is that characteristic that makes it impossible for us to ever be united on a political basis.
I like to believe that the only values that most Canadians truly share are Christmastide and Remembrance Day. Even then, I am sure someone will prove me wrong …
November 10, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Gayle — I’ll have to go look it up, but I think it’s “Biro” (from Birostyle which was an early make of ball point pen, as I recall). The English can be quite snobbish about such things. Our pedantry is genetic, it seems.
November 10, 2008 at 4:19 pm
ATY — A “radical and universalist right-winger…” scathing words indeed!
I’ve always considered this country as pretty much a free association of relatively like-minded people — conservative in many respects, rather liberal in others… socially tolerant for the most part, but not overly so… modest, condescending… not ashamed to go along to get along… a little inhibited and set in our ways, but reasonably open to experimenting with things that are new and different… French, English, Aboriginal and everything in between… Quite a nice mix, I’d say. It’s little wonder that so many people from around the world want to come and be part of the diverse mixture that constitutes this somewhat haphazard country. Those such as “RA” who are “fearful of losing their culture” seem to have a rather deficient concept of its dynamic and evolving nature from the outset.
November 10, 2008 at 4:38 pm
So I’m curious Red Tory…
Does calling someone a racist constitute libel? And if so, should you be removing this post and presumably a few comments on it to keep in line with your views on “Liberal 4ever’s” rather nasty comments about you?
Somehow I doubt you’ll be doing that, but do keep in mind that if you wallow in the mud like this, you’re going to get dirty and people are less sympathetic when you’re insulted in turn.
November 10, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Andrew — Well, I suppose if it were a REAL person that I was leveling that accusation against it might conceivably be regarded as such. If I’m not mistaken I believe that TRUTH is a reasonable defense and I’m fairly confident that I could marshal a good amount of corroborative evidence in support of my assertion if push came to shove.
I’m somewhat curious as to why you feel it necessary to weigh in with such a flippant line of questioning. Do you think it’s important to defend the rights of bigots, racists and fraudulent posers? If so, then hey… knock yourself out. Personally, I tend to regard them as douchebags.
November 10, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I knew I probably spelled it wrong.
As for the snobbishness, you do not need to tell me about that! Though truth be told there were not many customers as bad as that guy. After a couple months I picked up the language, the inflection and, surprisingly, an Irish accent. I really loved living there (London that is – I have never been to Ireland).
Anyway, I certainly conceded the British were superiour in the use of language. I did often suggest they should stop spending so much time disparaging the quality of English found in the colonies so they could spend more time inventing a toilet that actually flushed on the first try.
November 10, 2008 at 5:37 pm
RT:
Well said. This country has never really had “one culture.” Even back in the day when English-Canada was resolutely British, there were vast regional differences.
Canada is truly a creation of Empire. And most Empires – and especially the British Empire – were variously polyglotic.
Even Britain today is a collection of English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and immigrants from around the Globe. Indo-Britons for instance, have heavily imprinted their culture on that Island. The same is true of Canada.
To me, all the matters is allegiance to our common and duly constituted authority. I would proudly stand by a Loyal man of Brown or Yellow hue, than by a Redneck of republican convictions.
There are many men buried overseas under Heralds of Portland Stone bearing the Maple Leaf with names other than Smith and Brown. Especially at this time of year, their Loyalty and Sacrifice counts for far much more than their skin tone and religion.
November 10, 2008 at 5:42 pm
“Those such as “RA” who are “fearful of losing their culture” seem to have a rather deficient concept of its dynamic and evolving nature from the outset.”
RA has conflated the US and its Civic Principles with Canada and hers. That only makes him all too typical & contemporary.
I got into it once with him over Thomas Paine. Can you imagine any conscious Canadian “conservative” caring one whit about Thomas Paine? The irony was truly delicious.
November 10, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Tom Paine speaks to a certain side of me, so I really can’t come down too hard on that one. I’m of very mixed temperament when it comes to that. It makes no sense and isn’t logical… just like my adoration for Napoleon… entirely emotional, sentimental and without reasonable sense in most respects.
November 10, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Red Tory…
The reasons I jumped in with my flippant remark back there is mostly to do with the fact that I’m faintly amused by the insults being hurled around. I also hope you’ll tone it down and stop being so unnecessarily rude. (The same could be said about his response to this post). That said, I prefer mild amusement to the rather depressing feeling I get when I think too much about how many people see that sort of thing as a valid substitute for discussion.
Also, perhaps I didn’t read your post closely enough, (and I haven’t read the comments at all), but I appear to have missed why you think that Raphael doesn’t really exist. Seriously, did I miss something or are you referring to a previous post?
As for the whole racist thing, it’s a stretch to say that the comment you quoted necessarily shows that Raphael is a racist. Certainly a racist could well make a statement like that, but A implies B does not mean B implies A. Furthermore, disliking some pieces of cultures being imported into Canada does not imply racism. It certainly implies at least some degree of cultural chauvinism, but that’s not the same thing. Whether or not that cultural chauvinism is a bad thing depends entirely on what cultural aspects one is objecting to.
November 10, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Incidentally, is there a way for me to change the avatar associated with my posts?
November 10, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Andrew — Working back to front… Yes, go to Gravatar (http://en.gravatar.com/) and sign up for a free account — this will give an ID of your choosing on various sites.
November 10, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Regarding “insults being hurled around”… Well, I happen to think that race-baiting is pretty nasty stuff and what goes around, comes around in that respect. So, sorry if it isn’t polite or genteel, but after a certain point, we just get fed up with all the nonsense and bullshit. Yes, I prefer a mild rebuke and a bit of harmless joshing rather than more profane insults and mudslinging, but at what point do you just say: “Enough!” and cut to the chase in no uncertain terms. It seems that it doesn’t matter in the least to many of these “Blogging Tory” blockheads who need to be hit over the head with a large stone before anything gets through their deeply fortified skulls in any case… Subtle nuance and diplomacy is wasted on them, I’m sad to say.
November 10, 2008 at 6:32 pm
it’s not like i said 4effer’s mother was a whore….
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Regarding the “fictitious” status of Mr. Alexander… It’s a nom de plume and is no more REAL than “Issachar” or “Red Tory” (except for the fact that YOU and I actually have real identities.. he does not, for whatever reason). So there’s quite a bit of fakery going on there.
November 10, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I have no problem with YOU liking Paine, but for a Canadian Conservative to have any affinity for Tom the Pain is beyond ironic. It is ridiculous. Paine argued for the elimination of that very system that Canadian Conservatives used to hold to so dearly.
November 10, 2008 at 7:25 pm
“that very system that Canadian Conservatives used to hold to so dearly.”
subjugation of the masses?
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Yeah, that’s the one …
November 10, 2008 at 8:22 pm
KEvron
November 10, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I love how we can work out our differences here.
November 11, 2008 at 5:11 am
That is why this is the place to be … ;>)
November 11, 2008 at 5:25 am
Werner,
Which part of Toronto was that, exactly?
I have lived in the Annex and Younge and Eglinton, and for a short time in Greek town. I worked in Little Italy and loved to wander through Chinatown.
So, exactly where did you live and encounter this. Nothing exact, just major cross streets will do.
November 11, 2008 at 10:13 am
Red Tory?
He’s “fake” because he’s using a pseudonym? That’s your point? This is the internet! We’re writing on blogs. The vast majority of us use pseudonyms and we let them be linked back to our real names to various degrees. Plenty of people try not let the two be connected at all.
If you think that “Raphael Alexander” is a pseudonym, I’m afraid that means absolutely nothing. I thought you were suggesting he was some kind of sock puppet or that he was the creation of a group of people. That would be misrepresenting himself. But using a pseudonym? Even if he is, that’s not misrepresentation when you’re on the internet, it’s just the way things are done.
November 11, 2008 at 10:40 am
I suppose. In any event, he’s a person of no consequence.
November 11, 2008 at 12:08 pm
One should probably we much more worried about the prospect of a homogenous global American culture wiping out the constituent cultures that make up Canada–and the rest of the whole world, in fact. McDonalds, Starbucks (there it is again!) and Wal-Mart have a bigger place in our cultural lives in Canada than your local mosque full of “immigrants.”
We are free to be individuals in the homogenous globalist society in our private lives by choosing between Coke and Pepsi, but what about the public aspects? What kind of collective Canadian culture or institutions does Raphael wish to save from so-called barbarism?
Where’s Ralph on that one? Just more ridiculous, racist hypocrisy coming from the far right.
November 11, 2008 at 12:30 pm
It would be most interesting indeed to hear tell of this “traditional culture” which he seems so terribly concerned about preserving and that’s imperiled by “dirty immigrants”…
So let’s dispense with platitudes and code words and have it described in more detail.
But it won’t be of course, as such an exercise would quickly expose the fundamental absurdity at its core for the ridiculous pack of nonsense that it most likely is, and lay plain the rotten bigotry that motivates it…
November 11, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Red Tory Your earlier comment about the Mister Raphael ….(albeit in a mostly white, upper income enclave). That may have been North Vancouver when you were growing up 40 years ago but now it is mostly a Persian, upper income enclave! There are close to 25,000 Iranians living in North Van now and the stores and restaurants up and down Lonsdale are a testament to that. So shove your pathetic elitism up your wrinkly wazzu. I love North Vancouver just the way it is and the way it has evolved. I hope the guy who you are denigrating discovers this too. Go ahead shove it in some more.
November 11, 2008 at 7:36 pm
wait: who’s to be shoving whose head up whose ass?
typically, an entire metropolitan city is not considered an enclave (my own beloved city by the bay excepted).
KEvron
November 11, 2008 at 8:01 pm
“Let’s be clear from the outset that “Raphael Alexander” is a work of fiction”
Obvious, but we thought he was one of yours! Meh, this whole catfight is prolly part of the cover. He is widely considered to be a Liberal plant, though I think he may be just a very mentally ill individual.
Works construction, has a wife and three kids and he posts all hours of the day…riiiiiight. About as believable as your fake family, Red
November 11, 2008 at 8:27 pm
“now it is mostly a Persian, upper income enclave! There are close to 25,000 Iranians living in North Van”
25,000 out of a population of more than 120,000 constitutes a majority? Are you as stupid in person as you are on the internet?
November 11, 2008 at 8:35 pm
“25,000 out of a population of more than 120,000 constitutes a majority?”
that would mean every fifth neighbor is persian. unless, of course, they should live in enclaves….
KEvron
November 11, 2008 at 8:52 pm
The North Shore of the Lower Mainland of that little ity bity often forgotten city (outpost to the learned) called Metro Vancouver constitutes 3 actual cities…kiddy so what are they….City Of North Vancouver City , District of North Vancouver, and oh yes West Vancouver. Guess which one is biggest in size, biggest by population and which one is often called the white wealthy enclave. Your head must be very large Babbunutless and it must just hurt sometimes. lenny hopefully you have relatives that will take you out in public during the daytime sometime? You people should actually live cross cultural cornucopia sometime instead of just talking.
November 11, 2008 at 9:04 pm
“You people should actually live cross cultural cornucopia sometime instead of just talking.”
talking is easier.
sue, are you enclaved?
KEvron
November 11, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Sue — Such nasty hostility. Where did you get that figure of “25,000 Persians” from? In FACT, the population of North Van is only about 85,000 according to StatsCan and of that number 26,000 are “immigrants” (most dating back prior to 1991) and could be from anywhere in the world… not just Iran. Also, in fact, the “total visible minority population” is just over 18,000 according to the StatsCan Community Profile. So my assertion that it’s “mostly white” is not, in fact, at all inaccurate. Shove that up your own pathetic ass, you miserable ignoramus.
November 11, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Conservative Representative — Speaking of “fakes”… How interesting that you share the exact same IP# with someone posting as “Liberal 308”… Funny that, isn’t it?
November 11, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Red Tory so quick with the vitriol. Typical of a sexist most likely racist balding white guy.Wow you can google too. Nice. But you do not live in my wonderful town now do you. But hell you know everything because you googled, googled Stats Can. Is this how you substantiate all your arguments. Likely so. Well you are so wrong about our oasis in North Van, but you really do not need me to validate that do you. If you really were aware of the constant evolving unafraid dialoque within our town’s community you would shut the hell up and quit perpetuating stereotypes and start contributing something besides stroking some covert superiority complex about a fantasia in your mind about multiculturalism. We are living in the real world. It is not stagnent or predictable, it is action, talking about it with our neighbours. And loving it. It must be the pits to be so perfect and incapable of a real conversation. One of the few clever comments that I have read here tonight is about getting a brew at Starbucks,
i fucking refuse to call a small a “tall”.
So redtory you suck really really bad. Yeah it’s my first time here and I’m banned. That must be a familiar refrain in your online world. You are no more inclusive than enclave obsessed mimic kevlar/kevron.
November 11, 2008 at 9:46 pm
“You are no more inclusive than enclave obsessed mimic kevlar/kevron.”
i resent that enclave!
ENklave
November 11, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Sue — Hmmm. Quick with the vitriol. Well, let’s see now… you started off making a baseless, factually incorrect assertion, called me a “pathetic elitist” and told me to shove it up my “wrinkly wazzu.” Yep, no vitriol there. Then, in your most recent torrid missive, you accuse me of being a “racist” and presume, for some unimaginable reason that I’m a “balding white guy” (you’re half correct on that one, I am white) and further accuse me of “stroking some covert superiority complex about a fantasia in [my] mind about multiculturalism” and then go on to conclude that I “suck really really bad.” Whoa! Little Miss Bundle of Pent-Up Hostility, or what?
Chill out already. When I said “mostly white enclave” it was really more in the relative sense as compared with other parts of Vancouver. A number of years ago, I used to live not far from the airport (SW Marine Drive and Cambie, to be exact) and it was a very culturally diverse neighborhood by comparison to North Van — which when I think of it boils down to the “British Properties”… although it’s a lot more complex than that, I realize. Most of my more recent experience in Vancouver as been in the East End of the city which, I think you’d have to admit is different world altogether.
I’m not sure why you’re spoiling for a fight or what’s gotten you so worked up and aggravated or why you rather creatively imagine that you’ve been “banned” — play the victim much, do you?
November 11, 2008 at 9:54 pm
i’m coining it: “sue-age”!
KEvron
November 11, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Zing!
November 11, 2008 at 10:13 pm
SW Marine Drive….hmm yes plenty o white folks with equestrian properties…
and seriously c’mon British Properties in North Van?….actually that high end upper echelon 9by any standards) neighbourhood is a world away in ahh West Vancouver….not North Van. And yes the Guinness brewery family built the Lions Gate Bridge eons ago in 1938 to get to their “British Properties” which are now primarily a middle eastern very wealthy immigrant enclave. Go figure.
But please tell us this. When was the last time you read, heard, talked with anyone who lives here, saying that this was a problem. And you pore over semantics and denigrate anyone who doesn’t put the words together perfectly to satisfy you. Well in this town it is lively and diverse and we talk about everything all the time. We trust our neighbours, appreciate differences and we don’t have to wear some pathetic acceptance crown to know what works and what is normal. We learn from our mistakes. Have you.
November 11, 2008 at 10:28 pm
“Well in this town it is lively and diverse”
it’s not a town, it’s an enclave.
KEvron
November 11, 2008 at 10:47 pm
SW Marine Drive….hmm yes plenty o white folks with equestrian properties…
Might I suggest that you dislodge your head from your ass where it appears to be stubbornly situated at the moment and actually travel down to the bottom of Cambie St. where it meets up with Marine Drive… You won’t be seeing a lot of “white folks with equestrian properties.” What complete nonsense.
But please tell us this. When was the last time you read, heard, talked with anyone who lives here, saying that this was a problem.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. What “problem” exactly are you referring to? The imaginary one that you seem to have concocted in your febrile imagination?
And you pore over semantics and denigrate anyone who doesn’t put the words together perfectly to satisfy you. Well in this town it is lively and diverse and we talk about everything all the time.
Shorter “Sue”: Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo. Don’t be mean to me because I’m stupid, misinformed and ill-mannered!
We trust our neighbours, appreciate differences and we don’t have to wear some pathetic acceptance crown to know what works and what is normal. We learn from our mistakes. Have you.
And this would be you speaking for all of the 85,000 residents of North Van, would it? How presumptuous.
Look, what exactly is your major malfunction? You seem to have created some whole fabulous notion that casts you as some oppressed, horribly maligned “victim” of some kind based on… what? The fact that I referred to North Van as “mostly white” — from that you’ve gone off the rails on this elaborate dissertation filled with vicious attacks, smears and whiny self-justification.
Great, North Van is a wonderful place. Woo-hoo! Also inhabited by a raving nutcase it seems.
November 11, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Some interesting statistics…
In the metro Vancouver area, population 2,097,695 [2006] there were a total of 28,160 West Asians [which includes Iranians, aka Persians as well as Afghanis, Central Asians, etc]. That’s 1.3% of the pop.
In West Van, population 41,625, there were 2410 West Asians. 5.7%…
In North Van, population 44,860, there were 3065 West Asians. 6.8%…
So it appears that we have a *little* time before Vancouver, or any of its constituent parts, is overrun with Persians.
It also appears that Sue has inflated the number of Iranians living in North Van by a factor of nine… In fact she appears to be claiming that there are virtually as many Iranians living in North Van *alone* as Stascan says West Asians [of which Iranians make up only a part of the total] live in ALL of the Metro Vancouver area.
Either Sue’s statistics are wrong, or the official Canadian census for 2006 is wrong…. I guess people will have to make a choice regarding which source they have more faith in…
November 11, 2008 at 11:47 pm
The above info re: North Van is for the City of North Van. For the district municipality;
2006 population, 81,910
West Asians 3,570
That’s 4.3%
Seems most of the “Persians” live downtown….
Anyway, let’s wait until the swarthy interlopers get to 10% of the population here in Vancouver before we sound the alarm bells and alter our immigration policies, eh?
November 11, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Skeptik — Oh, don’t bother “Sue” with pesky stats that you’ve Googled online from the StatCan website. How dare you! You, you…. racist! Don’t you realize that “Sue” “trusts” her neighbours and “appreciates differences” and therefore feels entirely free to make stuff up and level baseless allegations and make personal smears…. and if you don’t like that, well then, you’re a “pathetic elitist”… It’s really quite as simple as that, apparently.
November 12, 2008 at 12:10 am
I didn’t think I was really going out on much of limb in saying that North Van is “mostly white”… and something of an “enclave” (I believe the average income is like $86,000… that’s not too shabby in the scheme of “average” stats in this regard when it comes to household earnings).
It’s a bit difficult to fathom the profound degree of hostility that seemed to stoke in “Sue” for whatever reason. I would have happily conceded that it was a bit of a glib generalization (and one not perhaps current or entirely congruent with the facts on the ground)… so why all the name-calling and assumptions about me “stroking some covert superiority complex about a fantasia in [my] mind about multiculturalism” is quite mysterious.
I’m going to attribute that one to an apparent reading disability and a preternatural disposition to victimhood.
November 12, 2008 at 12:26 am
Yeah…. facts…. what can you do? I guess for some people its easier to live in a fantasy world of their own creation, than actually deal with the harsh reality of… err… reality. >laffs<
November 12, 2008 at 12:55 am
Well, the “reality” of “Sue” might well be one of some marvelously diverse cultural mix in North Van — and it is to an extent, just as many Canadian cities are — but the facts are, quite stubbornly, what they are… and I didn’t misrepresent them.
It’s somewhat difficult to see how such a hateful, nasty, ignorant, and thoroughly abrasive person gets along with her neighbours on a daily basis, but we’ll just have to leave that one up to the imagination, I guess.