33 Replies to “What, No Graffiti?”

  1. Amazing. Every year, people — especially teenagers — are killed at level crossings in Canada in their relentless pursuit of Darwin Awards. Yet the video shows crowds conducting orderly commerce along the entire trackbed, and without fatalities…

  3. I have to digress to the next topic on the Lilek’s post: Obama. Put in that way, it is indeed a scary prospect. Talk about hidden agenda that is the ultimate definition of the term, to re-define language and discourse, pure Marxism, or as Jonah Goldberg would say, Fascism with a smiley face. Obama could most certainly send America down the tubes.

  4. Love the fishmonger rubber boots.
    The fish cleaners in Chinatown here in Toronto wear the same getup.
    Of course the Chinatown delivery trucks are spray painted by dorks with no jobs, like everything else in the neighborhood.

  8. Now why cant we import people like these,obviousy they will go to great lenghts to work, instead of the ones we import marrying 4 or 5 women all collecting welfare and sitting on there asses at home.

  10. Those poor, dumb sods. We should send some of our municipal politicians over there to set up laws and taxes … so that they can be free.

  13. Am I missing something here by not embracing this flick (or the next one showing people hanging off a train like ants on a leaf in a flood)?
    I like the Cdn. culture over here and I like THEIR culture over THERE. No I’m not a racist or a bigot…I just like my country.
    I note so many people extolling the virtues of the rest of the world and yes its all very well.
    That’s what holidays and vacations to exotic and different ports of call are all about…a break from one’s norm into a change of culture and hence a temporary and enjoyable diversionary experience.
    But when all is said and done,I like to come home to my culture and continue with this culture ’till my next sojourn.
    Putting the whole cultural globe in one massive blender and pushing the Multi-Culti frappe button is not what I consider in the best interests of the realm. The obvious reason is not xenophobia but massive confusion,centralized overcrowding,errosion of basic existing values and hence a lower standard of living etc.
    Many of these examples are quaint and could give the home atmosphere an exciting carnival-like flavour,but in the end there is no clear retreat.
    I’m sure some are rolling their eyes at this point, but stop to realize that our culture to others is just as exotic to them as theirs is to us; and beyond the ‘opportunity factor’ many would prefer their own culture which is exactly what this post and the whole PC/MC issue is about.
    By the wholesale introduction and indoctrination of other’s cultures, we leave little room for believing in and taking pride in our own and very admirable culture.

  14. geez simon, you appear to be an expert at missing the point!!!!!
    it’s as much about inovative thinking as it is about culture or third world

  15. That was interesting, on innovative ways to get around an inconvience. The train had to go through, the people have to sell their stuff to survie. Everyone did what had to be done, without a fuss. Cooperation and survial in one of its finest moments.

  17. I don’t think it has anything to do with neighbourliness, I think it has to do with survial.

  19. Yep, that’s what I’m thinking. Train’s coming, move or get run over.
    Amazing what a government can get done when they have carte blanche, eh?

  21. The whole scene is smooth and functional.
    Wonder how many years they squabbled over land rights?
    Is that the part of Candian culture you were referring to Simon?

  23. No doubt the train brings customers, and supplies. They would be kind of on the dumb side of things to try and stop it. They can’t be lefties, because they understand the need and supply math.

  25. In Calgary if you get convicted of pushing someone under a train after yelling “how would you like to get pushed under a train” and have it caught on video tape……. you cry and then blame the racist system.
    of course the system is sympathetic to you with your two children left in saskatchewan while you are trying to score crack on the streets of Calgary supplied by your long list of B&Es and theft.

  26. The people in the video are fortunate they don’t have to contend with Via Rail’s erratic service. In Thailand the noon train arrives around 12 o’clock; in Canada it might arrive at 3 a. m.

  27. Remarkable and touching. It reinforces one of the points in Hernando de Soto’s “The Mystery of Capital” i.e. the energy and resourcefulness of many of the world’s poor. So often it is not the weakness of the individual which keeps the poor of the third world poor, but the inefficiency or outright corruption of their governments and economic systems. Unlike the deadbeats and panhandlers who I have to “shoo” walking in downtown Calgary, I have the utmost respect for the people in this video.

  29. Well said DrD.
    I know many who have visited the poorer countries and tell stories of contentment and survival, and no socialism to fall back on.
    The people in this vid are definitely survivors.

  32. It’s been 20 years since I’ve been to Bangkok … can’t imagine much has changed. When we arrived at the airport we had a choice of taking a cab or a student with her car to our hotel … we picked the student. On the way to our hotel she offered to chauffeur us while in Bangkok. We accepted … it was a ridiculously low rate per day … didn’t really expect her to show up. Next morning she and a friend showed up (this was in a A/c Mercedes). Our stay was perfect, they really took care of us.
    I think she was was also receiving kickbacks from restaurants, tuk-tuk drivers (after her hours … she recommended … tuk-tuk drivers also receiving kickbacks), stores (wife wanted to do a lot of shopping) etc. No Problems.
    Can university students in Canada offer the same kind of service? Not F’ing likely … and it has nothing to do with with our students.
    The river and train track markets are free to the the sellers and mean lower costs to the buyers … for anyone that’s never been there … it’s a tourist attraction … but if you go there or not, it still goes on.

  33. “geez simon, you appear to be an expert at missing the point!!!!!”
    Well maybe the message is in the eye of the beholder, but I think everybody’s got it wrong – and maybe Kate can set us all straight as to whether I read her right.
    I said to my wife over breakfasst that Kate is bloody brilliant. In just three words – What, No Graffiti’ – she characterized our Canadian/US culture for what it is. For too long, too many have claimed that urban decay and graffiti is the cry of the impoverished.
    I say it’s the mark of a thug culture, an expression of disrespect and disdain for one’s own community.
    What say you, Kate!

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