Is Alberta turning into a total social cesspool?

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by ok, ok,....I get it

Like who?

Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Japan offhand.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Japan offhand.

The racism in Scandinavia will shock even the stupidest North American. I have friends who got treated differently there while traveling just because they had brown hair.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by peter12

I have a hippie friend who just got Permanent Residence status here in Canada and so to celebrate we all went to a Flames game. As a welcome to Canada present I bought her a Flames shirt for like $25. She then went on a huge ramble about how this is the most expensive piece of clothing that she owns and the evils of a materialist culture etc etc... I wanted to just rip that shirt into pieces.

but she was ok watching million dollar athletes ply their trade? LOL!

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by peter12

The racism in Scandinavia will shock even the stupidest North American. I have friends who got treated differently there while traveling just because they had brown hair.

No disputing that at all... I'm just saying those societies are considered progressive, free and happy.

Even places like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy and Holland are adopting the attitude that immgration is a gift, not a right... and that new arrivals better act accordingly. Are they wrong?

[peter12]

Originally Posted by habernac

but she was ok watching million dollar athletes ply their trade? LOL!

While using a ticket that someone else bought for her.

[Ozy_Flame]

This reminds me of the "ginger" beatings that supposedly happened in B.C. and Alberta a couple of days ago.

We still have a long way to go.

[ok, ok,....I get it]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

No disputing that at all... I'm just saying those societies are considered progressive, free and happy.

by who?

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

No disputing that at all... I'm just saying those societies are considered progressive, free and happy.

No, I agree. I totally get what you were saying.

This thread reminds of this one time during a poli sci class I stated that the average Canadian housewife didn't get Kim Campbell and then the subsequent beat-down.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

This reminds me of the "ginger" beatings that supposedly happened in B.C. and Alberta a couple of days ago.

We still have a long way to go.

When has anyone said that they want to walk up to a dirty individual with filthy dreads and punch them in the face? Live and let live, doesn't mean I have to like hippies.

[ok, ok,....I get it]

Originally Posted by peter12

No, I agree. I totally get what you were saying.

This thread reminds of this one time during a poli sci class I stated that the average Canadian housewife didn't get Kim Campbell and then the subsequent beat-down.

WOW...I just got a flash back to me Peace and Conflict Resolution class when they found out I was in the army............

[habernac]

Originally Posted by peter12

While using a ticket that someone else bought for her.

LOL! Gold! I love the hypocrisy of such individuals.

My little sister had some friends in high school who were chiding someone for wearing fur. Both were wearing leather jackets when they did this. Lots of laughter at their expense when I called them on it.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Is society "too" open, or is societal ambivalence leading to "cultural islands" and the negative consequences? Is the solution to be more openminded, or less.

Or does the prejudice show towards groups lead to cultural islands or ghettos (in the historical sense)? Do these cultural islands form because people for safer/more secure when not being subjected to bigoty?

I'm just wondering about the other side of that coin.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by peter12

When has anyone said that they want to walk up to a dirty individual with filthy dreads and punch them in the face? Live and let live, doesn't mean I have to like hippies.

uhhhh...What? I wasn't getting at that at all.

I'm saying our debate about culture and racism in general reminds me that problems are still prevalent in society.

Don't take this personally...

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by ok, ok,....I get it

by who?

UN Human Development Index.

Top 3 nations are Iceland, Norway and Australia. All three tend to have melting pot or xenophobic tendencies. Yes, Canada is fourth (and dropping). But right behind us are another group of melting pot/xenophobic nations, namely Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and Holland.

[Cowboy89]

I like golfing in the summer, skiing in the winter, and travelling to sun destinations. If it takes more than a union-mandated 37.5 hour work week and a liberal arts degree for education to be able to afford a lifestyle that enables me to do those things then so be it, I'm willing to pay that price. If Calgary happens to have a lot of people like me who don't mind putting in late and harder hours to afford what they want in life then naturally day to day life in Calgary will be a little less compromising towards the 'just hanging out in a coffee shop/park on a weekday' crowd.

If all one wants is their basic needs met and enough time to play bongos in the park, all the power to them. I just think that those people shouldn't expect that the providing basic needs part be monetarily subsidized by those who do not share such lifestyle desires as an active effort to artificially force a place to be more friendly to the 'just haning out in a coffee shop/park on a weekday' crowd.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by habernac

LOL! Gold! I love the hypocrisy of such individuals.

My little sister had some friends in high school who were chiding someone for wearing fur. Both were wearing leather jackets when they did this. Lots of laughter at their expense when I called them on it.

It's like this Animal Rights protest I walked past in Vancouver and noticed that a few of the protesters had leather shoes. Those people deserve a punch right in the reproductive organs.

[ok, ok,....I get it]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

UN Human Development Index.

Top 3 nations are Iceland, Norway and Australia. All three tend to have melting pot or xenophobic tendencies. Yes, Canada is fourth (and dropping). But right behind us are another group of melting pot/xenophobic nations, namely Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and Holland.

I am not sure i agree that melting pot and xenophobic should go hand in hand.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Or does the prejudice show towards groups lead to cultural islands or ghettos (in the historical sense)? Do these cultural islands form because people for safer/more secure when not being subjected to bigoty?

I'm just wondering about the other side of that coin.

Frankly? I think both do it.

If you try too hard to assimilate people into one culture, they tend to either not come at all, or, they build their own cultural islands and ghettos.

If you don't try at all and have a multicultural free-for-all, then you have people craving some sort of societal involvement, so they build their own cultural islands and ghettos. Or, they try to change the existing framework to suit them, which offends other groups, once again leading to cultural islands.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

If all one wants is their basic needs met and enough time to play bongos in the park, all the power to them. I just think that those people shouldn't expect that the providing basic needs part be monetarily subsidized by those who do not share such lifestyle desires as an active effort to artificially force a place to be more friendly to the 'just hanging out in a coffee shop/park on a weekday' crowd.

I'm a little concerned about the attitude by some around here that bongo-playing "hippies" all leech off society and Albertan tax dollars. That's a pretty big generalization. Just because someone is playing music in a park when other people work doesn't make them a leech.

There are other methods of employment in this world than 9-5 paper pushing.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Frankly? I think both do it.

If you try too hard to assimilate people into one culture, they tend to either not come at all, or, they build their own cultural islands and ghettos.

If you don't try at all and have a multicultural free-for-all, then you have people craving some sort of societal involvement, so they build their own cultural islands and ghettos. Or, they try to change the existing framework to suit them, which offends other groups, once again leading to cultural islands.

It doesn't hurt/help that these countries also have cohesive national identities that go back 100s of years.