Back In Canada

So being back in Canada is a bit hard. I am in a small, what use to be industrial, town in Southern Ontario. Due to NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement, with the US and Mexico), many of the factories have closed. So the town is older, mostly white, very suburban; strip malls and highways.

Some comparisons, between Australia and here:

• People have the same accent as me.
• Lack of discussion about 'Australian' values, although racism is alive and well. It is expressed here 'that if people don't like it, they can leave.' Unlike Australia, white Canadians are not concerned with what it means to be Canadian, but those who don't like it, apparently can leave and not really encouraged to point these things out.
• In Canada, there are people of colour on television, and unlike Australia there are many television channels. The TV in my hotel has over 30.
• I can find poutine, but no street sushi or curry.
• There are lots of people who speak French, also the packaging on items is in English and French.
• Elections are different, you have to make people go out and vote, where in Australia they get fined if they don't.
• People in Canada move faster, are fatter and seem more worried about money. They need to relax. It is annoying. Although, unlike Australia they aren't dogfuckers, which could be more annoying. At least people here work and don't sit around complaining all day about how hard work is (I wish it was everyone).
• The beer here stinks. There is no Coopers Green. Don't worry, I will remain vigilante in my search for a good beer.
• The nice lattes available in Australia, in Melbourne they are everywhere. Here Tim Hortons is everywhere with its drip coffee and donuts. It's not as nice as a latte.

So on the whole, I do miss Australia. The people, the food.... but not stupid John Howard, and the whinging people.

Goin' Home - Part 1

Hello there,

Sorry I have not written for a while. Since the visa has still not been granted, I am returning to Canada on Sunday. It is happy and sad. Happy that I get to see people there, sad that it is going into winter.

My friend that waited for his visa for six years, got it last week. He suggested that I be patient and wait for another five and a half, I don't think I have it in me.

Anyway, I thought I would list some of the things that I will miss here:

• My lovely friends (some Australian, although heaps of international students)*


• the wine and Coopers Green


• the street sushi


• the diversity of food and people in Melbourne


• the tram (especially seeing the elephants when I go past the zoo, route 55) and the Hope Street bus


• the architecture, gardens and lovely buildings

* Please note the use of Australian slang with 'heaps'.

Review of the 457

So the visa that I applied for is a 457. These visa types are currently under review. I like to say it is the same kind that Dr. Haneef had. He is now back in his country. Like I ask many people now that I am leaving here. Do you want my sim card?

The Real Truth

So we on the left often blame each other. We are busy with it, spend a lot of time doing it. Is it deserved? Should we forgive? How do we end up fighting the common enemy (right-wing nut-jobs) and not each other?

Well, as my father would say, "everyone needs to carry their own water." So people need to put their asses where their mouths are. If people fuck up, they need to admit it, not point fingers at everyone else.

Not to leave my mother's pearls of wisdom out of my blog. One of my favourites from her is, "Let the work speak for itself." If you do the work, people will know. If you just talk about it, they will figure it out that you are not a do-er. It just may take a little longer. On occasion, we can all be baffled by bullshit.

Sittin', Wishin', Waitin'

I know the title of this post is from a Jack Johnson song but someone was listening to him the other day and thought of me.

So I am still in Melbourne. On July 3rd I called DIC (Department of Immigration and Citizenship) and they told me that I would have a response about my visa situation on July 6th. The exact words were, "Do not fly tomorrow". So I changed my ticket and thought that the visa would come.

Today there is still no visa.

Now, I am pissed off. And as my father told me, "It's better to be pissed off, than pissed on." I am okay with anger. I am not on prozac and have feelings. I express them. I know that this makes some people uncomfortable and they would rather discuss the weather or pretend that everything is super. But it's not. I don't have any interest in pretending it is.

I am tired of people telling me to wait. I am sick and fucking tired of waiting. People always want you to wait. As I once told someone, "I am an activist, not a wait-ivist."

Living without knowing your visa status, and not seeing your loved ones sucks. It is hard to plan, impossible to think your next steps. Someone I know has been in visa limbo-land since 2001. Imagine.

Anyway, please don't tell me to wait, or that it will come. I feel duped by DIC since I believed it when they said two days. Governments lie and I should know better. But the not knowing, that is the stuff that makes you feel cuckoo.

Here is a creepy painting I saw at the Guggenheim exhibit at the NGV the other day. It sums things up. It's called 'Asylum.'

Rockhampton and the Biggest

Hello there,
so now we are in Rockhampton and the rain has stopped. There are blue skies today, which are nice to see. I have been collecting, and observing signs and notes of the biggest, best, most, first, etc. I thought that I would share some from one brochure on Rockhampton just to give you an idea of how common these statements are:
- The beef capital of Australia
- beside the largest and most picturesque river in Queensland
- largest studding venue in the southern hemisphere.

But the brochure does not mention that there is a large military base here. There is Shoalwater Bay Military Training area, and the US and Australia are doing military training exercises there. The largest in Australia! Protesters are there highlighting the environmental and evil associated with these actions.

Alice to Douglas

We are still on our trip around Australia and have traveled from Alice Springs, to Cairns and now we are in Port Douglas.

Port Douglas is one point of access for the Great Barrier Reef. We have not gone out on the boat since it has been rough and the woman at the travel centre recommended against it. So we went on a tour to the rainforest today.

In Alice Springs the local paper had articles on the “Pine Gap Four.” These four Christian activists were arrested breaking into Pine Gap, near Alice Springs. Pine Gap is the US military base and has 2-3000 US troops stationed there for two year assignments. In Alice Springs there were many indigenous Australians, but only white people worked in the establishments we went to. There were a lot of indigenous art galleries, with some interesting pieces. This picture is of Simpson's Gap, which is nearby.

Next we went to Cairns and it is a pretty town and stayed at a place on the beach. It was very relaxing. They had a lovely botanic garden there with lots of cool plants that would be fun to grow. We went to the market and they had lots of fresh food there; pineapples, avocados (five for $2.00), tomatoes, and exotic fruits.

Now we are in Port Douglas and unfortunately it is rainy. We did see some crocodiles on the river and they were big. Here is a picture of one.