downtown eastside vancouver, a 3rd world village

here, in the long twilight of temperate climates, listening to pink floyd on the radio. us and them. dark side of the moon.


it verges on the bizarre (from the italian bizarro meaning angry) living here in this place and time. where some of the wealthiest -  exchange spit and molecules with the poorest in canada. it makes me all bizarro.







this downtown eastside vancouver is a third world village. many live on the streets, even more live in the equivalent of tropical shanty towns, the hovels of single residency "hotels". plus the myriad inbetween, either on straight welfare, or some form of disability benefits, like myself. we live in a 3rd world village, in comparison to the owners of businesses and the management class of canada

and all of us sucking on the government teat, including the hundreds of "workers" who provide us with goods and services, all sucking off the same teat. mother canada. i'm glad, thrilled to be living here. here we get medical care, a below the poverty line income, a number of activities in which we can participate. most of us have worked, some for upto 40 years, but the walking wounded don't know how to save, use their monies for as instant a gratification as we have the courage to pursue, and so are now living in the poorest postal district in canada. makes me all bizarro.

and yet, yet, yet. speaking for myself, i am the happiest i have ever been. i am one of the "disabled" and no, i refuse to bare my "disabilities" to the vulgar gaze of anybody. leave it to be said that, like so many other on "disability" the problem is that we find it excrutiatingly painful, impossible to live in the arid, draining sterility of mainstream life in north america. it makes us go all bizarro.

so what we have done, whether consciously or not, is pare our lives down, and we continue to pare our lives down so that we live only with essentials. which came first, the poverty or the desire to live a simple, and thus by definition, poor life.

we are among the world's best recyclers, reclaimers, reusers. we are among the world's champions of making less do more. we are among the most tolerant creatures on the planet, and we are also among the most intolerant. what is amazing and makes the bizarro go away is the the understanding and acceptance we show each other. the unconditional love that often peeks out from lost and forgotten eyes.

actually, all told, there's nowhere else i'd rather be.