by acknowledge the past
As most of you know, the Winter Olympics have been underway here in the Vancouver region. I haven’t commented much on it for I’m one of the folks that’s been against it mostly because of the extreme costs, commercialism and over-zealous security. However, I have been enjoying some aspects of it, watching a few events from the comfort of home. I always enjoy the opening ceremonies, and this one was quite good, very inclusive of our First Nations hosts.
But there have been criticisms by other ethnic groups in our country who feel they’ve been excluded. I’ve had some similar though less extreme thoughts but have hope for the closing ceremonies. I love the response by Stephen Hume, my favourite columnist in our local newspaper. As always he writes thoughtful and well-researched articles and this has to be one of his best: Acknowledge the past, but don’t try to remake it. Anyone upset about a lack of French in opening ceremony should learn about B.C.’s other settlers.*
It’s long but gives a great and sometimes surprising historical picture of British Columbia’s multicultural roots and some of the conflicts that have arisen from time to time. If this subject interests you, please read and comment.
P.S. I forgot to add another fascinating article by Hume, also concerning the opening ceremonies: Tripod glitch fit nicely with Olympic tradition; Ancient Greeks would have appreciated the symbolism since the tripod has a long association with the Games.*
*Update: links have expired and have been removed (dang Vancouver Sun for their short-lived links to articles)
