Stranger Than Fiction, 30

A rather wild year was 2010, near the beginning anyway.  The Olynmpics came to town and I was involved in the protests and acts of resistance.  I did not wear a black balaclava by the way, nor did I break windows or overturn mailboxes or torch police cars.  I was a peaceful protestor and if you must know I had to distance myself, permanently, from the Christian social justice organization I was involved with because they were condoning if no participating in acts of violence committed by other groups in our resistance network.  I am a strong pacifist and I will not resort to violence no matter how angry I am at the time.  Here are some samplings from my ejournal for that time:

I have just ducked into the library after participating in the huge process (I mean PROTEST, but I will accept this as a meaningful Freudian slip) march that is taking place in time for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I arrived late for the march but one of my bosses (thanks again, George!) was good enough to let me leave work early for the march.  I never know what I am going to encounter in a demonstration and I have participated in a few over the years.  With the awful things I have heard about police brutality, tear gas and agents provocateurs I did not want to take chances, especially with nearly a billion bucks worth of security to contend with so I brought my Keffayeh, to shield my face in case of tear gas and earplugs in case the police were going to try out their new sonic toys on us.  After a lengthy search that took me from the art gallery along Robson to B.C. Place and a huge phalanx of police (I have never in my life seen so many cops in one place), I finally found the march on Georgia.  One of the police asked me why I was walking against the crowd. I said that I was looking for the demonstration, which I hope is the closest I will ever have to come to having to ask a cop for directions to a protest march!  No he didn't tell me where they might be. I might have replied that it is because I enjoy seeing people's faces, and admittedly this is one of my reasons for walking against crowds.  They are made up of individual human beings and humans, regardless of how boring they can be, are fascinating!  I find that it helps me to see and appreciate the humanity in others, including in police whose humanity must be under perpetual assault just having to do what they do for a living. I was lucky to run into a good friend in the march right away and we talked about how calm this march is as well as enormous.  There are thousands out there (the Globe and Mail's estimate is of course conservative, but so is the Globe and Mail, as they claim just over 1,000, but it must be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000) right now to protest the Olympics reminding the world through the lens they have on our city right now that housing for the homeless and respect for human rights and the environment trumps extravagant sporting events every time in priority.  Five choirs joined together to sing in this march and their voices and music are inspiring and they also help lighten the mood, given how pompous and serious us protesters can be sometimes.    One song they were singing: "I'll send my love over the mountains; I'll send my love over the sea; I'll send my love into the heavens; and it will return to me."  Well, remember the old saying? "Love is the only treasure that grows as you give it away!" I am going to step back outside to see how the protest is going and I will write more tomorrow.   When I stepped back outside the crowd had diminished to the thousand or so that the Globe and Mail suggests attended.  We were right up against the police barricades, drumming and chanting  "Homes, not Games; 2010 homes, not 2010 Games; Our streets, our streets, our streets...."; and my favourite, as there were several police on horseback, "Get those animals off those horses."  Well, I really do think it is cruel to horses to use them in this manner as well as potentially harmful to the protestors.  Throughout, the crowd remained respectful of the barricade.  I wish I could say the same about the police, who without the slightest provocation from protestors began to advance forward into the crowd.  Fortunately no one was hurt and no arrests were made.  The crowd also was considerably more disciplined and self-controlled than in other demonstrations I have been in, with protestors retreating on command by those coordinating the event for moments of quiet.  The weather was awful by the way, with rain and huge gusts of wind, but it was wonderful how many, despite the weather turned out for the event.  Ironically we were doing this next door to a sports bar with big windows and screens featuring Olympic sports, and crowds of patrons evidently oblivious to the protest and likely to the reasons behind the protest. This is something I have been noticing throughout the build up towards the Olympics.  There appears to be a huge disconnect between your so-called average Canadians and people who care enough about the issues of homelessness, poverty, aboriginal issues and environmental concerns being exacerbated by the Olympic Games.  We need somehow to work at bridging these solitudes and this is not going to be easy.  I don't think it's so much that a lot of people don't care, they are simply unaware and very vulnerable to the media manipulation, hype and spin that comes with the Games.  The torch relay, an invention of Adolf Hitler for the Berlin Games in 1936 is particularly powerful here, and problematic.  It seems that the metaphor of fire, especially as a flame being passed from one hand to another on a global run so stirs us in its archetypal power that it has on many people a strong, spiritual or quasi-religious impact, and so much the more given how little real spirituality there seems to be in the lives of many Canadians.  Here we have the instinctive archetypal power of fascism at work in an event that is supposed to be secular, apolitical and socially inoccuous. I am also concerned about the kind of kneejerk, unreflective kind of nationalism and patriotism being inspired by the Olympic Games in Vancouver.  It isn't that there is anything particularly wrong with this country (though we have our problems, but yes there are also many good things to be said about Canada.) but this mindless adulation of country is to me symptomatic of the kind of creeping fascism that is in danger of slowly strangling the many progressive social institutions that have marked Canada as a global icon of human rights, peace and social progress.)  The flag-waving and cheering patriotism that I have been noticing to me really brings this into emphasis. I am also concerned that so much importance and symbolic significance is invested in our athletes, as representing us so that many of us unthinkingly transfer onto them our own personal aspirations for excellence.  However, and sadly, the performance of the athletes, no matter how wonderful and superhuman, will not be enough to get most of us off the couch and outside where we can work on improving on our own levels of health and fitness. As long as our adopted gods and icons can do it in our proxy I suppose that gets us off the hook for working at our own self-improvement and growth. I have mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating, how much the Olympics, by fiat of corporate sponsorship have become such a flagship for global capitalism.  It is this constant metaphor of competition, relentless unceasing competition such as guarantees the survival of the fittest, and the destruction and dying off of whomsoever cannot successfully compete.  This sadly brings to mind that it should be no wonder that the homeless, the most powerless in our society are not only being further threatened by this humongously costly spectacle but that we are likely to be forgotten by most of the "average Canadians" who want only to turn on their TV, watch the athletes perform, cheer for Canada and knock back another beer and another bowl of Doritos. Global capitalism is like a psychotic tiger and this beast needs badly to be declawed, defanged, muzzled, leashed and caged. The Olympics has mutated from a symbol of social progess and international peace into a catalyst for the Psychotic Tiger of Capitalism.  This has to change. Please pass this on. from the ground Aaron The year was otherwise relatively uneventful.  I was clashing with one of my supervisors and this dragged on for almost a year but the relationship has long been restored and we work well together now.  Basically I stood up to him and stared him down, he asked me please to back off because I was getting pretty intimidating and his boss was actually helping negotiate a settlement between us.  I am simply amazed that I wasn't fired.   My social network was growing and developing but slowly and still even now five years later it isn't quite where I'd like it to be but things have improved just the same.  I tried to establish myself at St. Happy-Happy.  I wasn't exactly liked there as I tended to be outspoken.  Also the large gay population there did not like me because while I was no longer struggling to accept same-sex marriage I was, and still am, critical of sexual promiscuity and licentiousness no matter from what orientation and, well, I think a lot of the gay people in the church still felt it their right to sleep and slut around to their little, er, hearts' desire.  My pacifism also made me some enemies there since this parish like many Anglican gatherings is fully in support of the just war nonsense and I have been and still am critical of the churches' endorsement of the Remembrance Day ceremonies.  The rector was very supportive towards me and helpful.  Almost every month we would have dinner together in a local Thai restaurant and I cherish the memory of these meetings. He believed that I have gifts that would be helpful to the church.  Unfortunately a number of key parishioners did not share his opinion of me.   I returned to Costa Rica for about five weeks October to November.  It was like a retreat given I spent all but four days in Monteverde where I rented very cheaply an apartment for the month:   Sex in the Jungle Aaron Zacharias Hmmm...I knew that would get your attention. Actually, I´ve been ruminating lately about how I seem to be the only solitary traveller I have met in this bed and breakfast. The rest are all couples, and this is so unlike my experience of Mexico City. Nov 9, 2010 Hmmm...I knew that would get your attention.  Actually, I´ve been ruminating lately about how I seem to be the only solitary traveller I have met in this bed and breakfast.  The rest are all couples, and this is so unlike my experience of Mexico City last year where I met tonnes of lone travellers as well as couples, groups and families.  It makes me wonder what it must be about this bed and breakfast where I´m staying, or maybe it´s a feature about Monteverde and the Cloud Forest.  Sort of like a romantic get away and what can be more romantic for some people, I suppose, than the jungle?  Think Tarzan and Jane...and Cheetah? Nope, better leave him offset for a while.  Reward him with extra bananas.  Boy, too.  Most of the couples here seem pretty wrapped up in themselves and each other and of course I would not dream of disturbing them, as long as they do their couple thing quietly and don´t otherwise frighten the horses, or the sloths, or the parrots or the monkeys. This all works for me because I´m here essentially for solitude.  This trip has taken on the dimensions of a retreat, as I expected, and I feel that in some essential ways I am getting my ducks all in a row here.  I sometimes wonder, too, if this is why so many people who come here, come here for only a short time, perhaps three or four days at the most.  Once they´ve seen the jungle and the lovely birds and strange animals there really isn´t much else to do here, unless you want to really know this place and the people who live here.  And if you are willing to give the extra time to know yourself and where you are going in life.  Not easy, and small wonder few of us are usually equal to the task.  But, speaking for myself, it needs to be done and it´s getting done. The weather is hugely improved by the way, sunshine eavesdropping and Aaron´s rules of travel   This morning I eavesdropped over breakfast on a conversation between two couples who are staying here.  By the way I finally met another lone traveller at the bed and breakfast.  He´s an older fellow from the Canary Islands, named Angel  We had a couple of nice chats but I think he´s gone now.  No one, it seems, wants to stay here longer than three or four days, max.  So one of these two couples was  young newlyweds, likely American, the othe an older, late fifties I would imagine, couple, a British man married to an American or Canadian woman.  I was invisible, as I speak only Spanish here at the bed and breakfast, unless I meet English-speaking people that I really like, so I imagine they assumed that I don´t speak English so weren´t going to waste any time on me (I know, I don´t look Latino, but I could pass for Argentinian or perhaps even Spanish, since not every Spaniard has dark hair and brown eyes.)  Anyway, the English chap was complaining loudly and vocally about being stopped and fined for speeding by Costa Rican police, protesting loudly, indignantly, and one might say, embarrassingly, his innocence.  After this he got on his cell phone and in a loud voice complained to the car rental company about the cell phone they had leased him getting stolen.  Remember, it is assumed that I don´t speak English, and therefore I am invisible.  Afterward he complained about this equally stridently to Esteban.  After they left I asked Esteban for his opinion, and he didn´t seem sure what to believe and we both agreed that since we don´t know the police´s side of the story, maybe we should decide that the jury´s out.  By the way, before I even heard this guy open  his mouth I could have sworn that I was getting really bad energy from him, but that might be simply because his holiday was ruined and he was just upset, so who knows.  Just the same, I warned Esteban that by this guy´s accent I could tell this man is English and that the English for the most part are notorious liars.  And when they are outraged about something they lie even more.  Believe me I know this from lots of experience with the British.  Who knows, maybe this guy just got careless and lost his phone, but is already convinced that Costa Ricans are swindlers and thieves out to fleece him of his precious dollars and pounds sterling?  And this is the kind of attitude some people seem to bring with them here and to other countries.  But I will also give him the benefit of the doubt.  Perhaps he was swindled by the police, and maybe someone did steal his cellphone.  And maybe he already has rather a sour and bitter attitude, which we all know, can make one all the more vulnerable having to misfortunes with others. Anyway, this leads me to expound here about    AARON´S BASIC RULES OF TRAVEL:   1. Leave your ego at home.  If you travel with an attitude of humility you are going to learn more, appreciate more, enjoy more, meet some awesome people, and perhaps even make a few new friends.   If you don´t have humility, then you are likely going to learn it on your trip!   2. Prepare well.  Give yourself at least six months in advance to make up your mind and do extensive research on the places you want to visit.  Create a realistic budget.  Try to get flight and hotel reservations done at least three months in advance.  Search the Internet both for traveller reviews and to learn as much as you can about the culture, the political social and economic situation, and the risks of where you want to go.   3. Try to learn at least a bit of the language.  The longer your stay, the more you are going to need this skill.  People will respond better to you and will respect you more if you try to meet them on their ground.   4. Think of yourself as a guest in someone else´s home.  Wipe your feet before you come in.  Treat every person who lives here as if they were your host.  If your expectations aren´t met, have the dignity to not whine about it.  If you are a male, treat women and children with respectful distance.   5. Don´t flash your bling.  Dress modestly, leave expensive jewelry, watches and clothes at home or at least in your suitcase.  When eating out or taking a cab tip generously but not excessively.  I think fifteen per cent is adequate.  That´s what I try to tip when I´m in Costa Rica or Mexico City and no one has batted an eye so far.   6. Leave your wallet, credit and debit cards, travel documents, and all but the cash you need for the day, in the hotel safe.   7. Behave yourself.  If you drink alcohol do it in moderation and if you like to go out in the evenings try to be back in your hotel before midnight.  Limit your intake, to no more than three beers, or, two glasses of wine, or one highball.  And whatever you do don´t use illegal drugs and stay away from other travellers and locals who do use them or sell them.  And absolutely do not try to sex up the locals.  Not only is it tacky and ungracious but it can carry all sorts of other risks that I´m sure I don´t need to elaborate on here. If you want to get laid, then travel with a significant other, or with a bff (best friend with benefits).  Or hit on other tourists (just make sure that they´re already single and interested.)   8.  Don´t travel in a pack.  The place where I stayed in San Jose two years ago was overrun by a locust horde of young backpackers from Austria.  There must have been seven or eight of them.  They took over the place, were loud, obnoxious, and everyone smiled when they were finally gone. Try to travel in no more than a group of three, unless you are going as a family.   9.  Remember, that people live where you are.  They´re all going about their lives, their work, their families and their education the best way they can.  Be aware of them and cut them lots of slack.   10.  If you want a really authentic travel experience, then stay away from chain hotels, all-inclusives and cruises.  Try to stay in bed and breakfasts or private homes if you can.  You will meet more local people and if you can leave your consumerism at home you will likely have a very rich experience here.  Try to avoid tour groups if you are able and walk as much as possible or use local transit.