July 22, 2010 - 12:22 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Watch the news in Vancouver and one might not be faulted for thinking that all South Asians are bloodthirsty thugs.
There are many times when I feel that the political radar of the Georgia Straight’s Charlie Smith is skewered by irrelevance, a point that I have written about in the past and an opinion which is only buttressed with blog updates like this by his staff.
This piece, however, shows that Smith, when on, is still one of this city’s best commentators.
I have often pontificated, both verbally and in print, about the Vancouver media’s portrayal of South Asians when associated with any type of criminal activity – either alleged or proven.
Right now I am off to meet a high profile South Asian who thankfully doesn’t seem to be pigeonholed based on his or her race. But later in the day I will be back with a more in depth analysis on how South Asians are always classified in such a limited way by local reporting.
July 21, 2010 - 12:43 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Diversity in the West End? Forget about that, says Randy Helten. Most of the individuals who are different from WEN's notion of the demographics of the neighbourhood are nothing more than stereotypes, apparently.
Last night there was a story on Global about the annual about the Celebration of Light fireworks competition that is slated to begin tonight. In it, there were comments from MLA Spencer Herbert and Brenty Granby of the West End Resident’s Association regarding tolerance for the diversity of the neighbourhood (refer to CivicScene’s Quote of the Day for Granby’s quote). This is of course in consideration of several gay bashings that have occurred in the West End over the past few years.
Now, juxtapose those utterances with the content of this letter from Randy Helten, the “spokesperson” of the West End Neighbours (WEN) group, and you will see how narrow the viewpoints of some lining up against the Mayor and Council truly are.
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July 19, 2010 - 8:48 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Mike Klassen seems to have no memory of his partisan past, now that he has "reinvented" himself as a "non-partisan" blogger.
Mike Klassen posted this on Friday evening, clearly settling in for a fun-filled weekend of blogging. One supposes that he was trying to “out” me.
Well, not only does his post represent the height of hypocrisy when considering the author’s past, but it also doesn’t offer a stitch of information that is groundbreaking.
Let’s clear a couple of things up.
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