Echoes Down The Corridor

"Vancouver has long been nicknamed the “city of glass” for its shimmering high-rise skyline. Over the next few years, that skyline will get a very large new addition: Sen̓áḵw, an 11-tower development that will Tetrize 6,000 apartments onto just over 10 acres of land in the heart of the city. Once complete, this will be the densest neighbourhood in Canada, providing thousands of homes for Vancouverites who have long been squeezed between the country’s priciest real estate and some of its lowest vacancy rates. 

Sen̓áḵw is big, ambitious and undeniably urban—and undeniably Indigenous. It’s being built on reserve land owned by the Squamish First Nation, and it’s spearheaded by the Squamish Nation itself, in partnership with the private real estate developer Westbank. Because the project is on First Nations land, not city land, it’s under Squamish authority, free of Vancouver’s zoning rules. And the Nation has chosen to build bigger, denser and taller than any development on city property would be allowed."

NIMBYs are VERY CONCERNED about "Indidgenous/Native Ways of Being" or some bullshit

In 2022, Gordon Price, a prominent Vancouver urban planner and a former city councillor, told Gitxsan reporter Angela Sterritt, “When you’re building 30, 40-storey high rises out of concrete, there’s a big gap between that and an Indigenous way of building.” 

And y'all, please look at this post where I call a Nazi a Nazi and Nazi sympathizers also Nazis and tell me why a so-called "normie" decided I was talking about Israel or Graham Platner's stance on Israel.

They're literally defending someone who was plotting to bomb a synagogue with the excuse that his actions were "legitimate wartime actions"

One of the craziest things I’ve ever photographed! Maui, Hawaii

I don’t.

The reason I have no time for this excuse is because of the distinction between emotion and action.

What Israel has done to Gaza is horrific, and I would hope that regardless of your views on the conflict, we can all acknowledge that there are now many people living among what is an almost-destroyed country. The IDF has committed war crimes at a minimum, and Israel’s current government (at the time of this post) is blatantly racist and anti-Palestinian. And I get that when we see those things, especially with social media where you now see children being blown up on your feed, that is going to give you negative feelings about Israel. And when you have negative feelings about a country, you very quickly end up having negative feelings about a country’s people.

That’s normal. It is normal to feel like this. It is normal because from the very start of our species, our brains had to group people into boxes in order to survive. This Group of people give you berries and help sharpen your hunting sticks and so they are Good; This Group of people chase you with their hunting sticks and steal your berries and so they are Bad. Placing friend or foe into simple boxes is how human beings made it through so many centuries.

Which is why whilst it is sometimes difficult to read, I do not blame Palestinian, Lebanese, etc people for fearing or hating Israelis. They are genuinely in fight or flight, life or death mode right now. Trusting the wrong Israeli could end with them getting attacked or killed. Mending the hatred and fear between all of these populations is going to take centuries, generations. That trauma will not go away easily.

Westerners watching this all on social media? No, I’m sorry, you do not get that excuse. You are not over there. You are not being bombed. You are not being killed. You are watching this on your TV, and you can turn off whenever you want. If you really wanted to, you could disassociate from the entire thing and never think about Israel again, by constructing your social media feeds and being careful about what news channels you watch. You have an immense amount of privilege in that if you are wading into this conflict, you are choosing to do so, and you are making the choice that you will be presented with death and destruction and suffering. You are choosing to interact with this.

And yeah, good. It’s good for people to witness this and to take an interest and to want to end suffering. But you do not get to hijack that suffering and act as though you seeing the destruction of Gaza on a screen is the same as actually being in it.

You hate Israelis? Fine. Now it’s your responsibility to unlearn that. Because you can unlearn it, because you are not the one having your villages ransacked, or guns pointed at your head, or your home taken over by settlers. You are not directly in that horror and fear and fury.

And you need to take a step back, and start taking some responsibility for your emotions. If you hate Israelis, that is your issue to solve. Israelis do not need to perform in the way you want in order for you to recognise their humanity.

You have the Internet. You have libraries. You have bookstores. Go look for the Israelis who protest against their government. Go look for the Israelis who try to help Palestinians. Go look for the Israelis who write nuanced, conflicted essays. Go look for the Israelis who create books and films in order to explore their reality via fiction. Go look for the Israelis who set up interfaith groups. Go look for the Israeli children who aren’t old enough to understand anything about what’s happening. Go look for the Israeli scientists who are creating incredible progress in medical science that can benefit everybody in the world. Go look for the Israeli engineers who help create the same technology you use to publicly deny their humanity. Go look for the Israeli musicians who have created beautiful music for the world to enjoy. Go look for the Israelis who were traumatised by Oct 7th, but still want to give peace a chance. Go look for the Israelis who want nothing more than to have a happy childhood, get a job, marry a nice spouse, raise their children, then retire—just like everybody else. Go look for the Israelis who are just like you.

If hearing Hebrew frightens you, go listen to Hebrew until it doesn’t.

If you think all Israelis hate Palestinians, go talk to them until you find one who doesn’t.

If you think all Israelis are ugly, go Google Image them until you find one you find beautiful.

If you think all Israelis are bloodthirsty, go research it until you find one advocating for peace.

If you point the finger at Israelis, remember there are three more pointing straight back at you.

I don’t really care if the past couple of years has ‘caused you’ to dehumanise and hate an entire population of people. Your emotions are your responsibility to tackle. Dehumanisation is your problem. Take some goddamn responsibility and sort yourselves out.

Also this too!

To start off, I work at a methadone clinic. This client was twenty years old. He lived with his father.

He'd been absent because his father had told him, in no uncertain terms, that if he didn't quit methadone, he'd be out on his ass. His father wanted him to do NA exclusively, because he didn't want him "addicted to methadone."

This client had a longstanding severe opioid use disorder. He had been clean and sober for three months. He'd gotten a job.

When he'd tried to quit methadone to appease his father, he'd relapsed on fentanyl. He lost the job because he used at work. He'd lost his sobriety. He had kept his housing at the expense of just about everything else in his life.

Now he was back at the clinic, in secret, risking his housing to get some stability back in his life.

I think there IS something painful that a lot if people go through at that point in their lives where they realize everything they’ve done up to that point didn’t bring them by joy they thought it would.

Now obviously I don’t think men should be divorcing and abandoning their families just so they can replace their wives with the secretary who is half their age. That’s gross and misogynistic.

But I DO empathize with people who realize they want — NEED — to make major life changes for the sake of their own mental health. I support second careers, learning a new hobby, gaining new interests! Become a painter! A musician! Get that degree you’ve always regretted not getting!

Reinvent yourself!

It’s never too late to become a happier you.

keeping the comment under Hen’s because please let the record show: “Gwynocide.” these ghouls do not actually care about this conflict. they’re just fueled by the high of hatred.