Opinions September 02, 2008 Vancouver Can learn from Beijing 8, sees sinc Te Beijing Olympics were consistently criticized over its many flaws. These included the forcible removal of residents from low-income homes to help beautify the city in the lead up to these Olympics. There have also been a number of human rights violations that have occurred in China for many years as well as many other infractions. While this is an unfortunate experience for many citizens of this metropolis, Canadians do not have a right to cry foul over this or the many other abuses that the Chinese government perpetrated on its citizens. In the lead up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, many low-income tenements have been removed and replaced with brand new expensive buildings in an effort to confirm Vancouver as a world- class city, which is obviously quite similar to what the Chinese government attempted with their Olympics. No host city ever intends to embarrass themselves with the world’s scrutiny close behind them. Since September 11", officials on both sides of the border have given our law enforcement agencies the ability to detain anyone who they view as doing something contrary to what they deem suitable and/or against the best interest for the nation. Our government has also stood by while our citizens have been deported to foreign countries or detained by US authorities. These are our people and we need to do more for them to ensure their rights are not as flagrantly violated as they currently are. While I agree that what the Chinese government has committed is harmful abuses against its own citizens, which should never be condoned, I also believe that we can do far more at home to rectify our many flaws and weaknesses as a society to set a proper example for all to follow. Otherwise, other nations will continue to commit these heinous acts without remorse and our objections will not have much weight behind them. Another incentive to do more within Canada is because until world powers refuse to trade with nations that commit these types of abuses, there will be no forcible encouragement for them to comply with international expectations. If all Canadians voluntarily purchase items not made in China, essentially for all of us to pay more for less, we would be delivering a significant statement for their government to attempt a new course of action. Until a day where we as a society can accomplish such a lofty goal, everything else is just noise in a distant field. Those zombies are...a bunch of WeirdOS 3, cise aus; with dead animal purses wielding chainsaws; it was a feast for the eyes. A couple of weekends ago, I was heading downtown on a Saturday morning. At the Commercial Skytrain station, I inevitably witness some form or another of freak show, and this particular morning was no exception. Masses of people with fake blood congealing at the corners of their mouths and staining their t-shirts, and others My friends and I were curious (well, myself more than them)— especially since it was relatively early to be witnessing this type of bizarre display. At each SkyTrain stop, more and more of these “beings” showed up on the train. I’m one of those peo ple who needs to know. If someone says to me, “Oh did you see...” and trails off the sentence by ending it with a “never mind,” I will pester that poor person until they finish their question or thought, regardless of whether the thing is actually important or even remotely interesting. So, in the case of this strange Saturday morning, I wasn’t about to continue my day without figuring out what was going on, much to my friends’ dismay. I got off the train and headed straight for downtown. As I walked, I noticed large flocks of oddly-dressed and made up people trudging their way (some of them, due to the confining nature of their footwear, finding it extremely difficult to even walk) towards the grounds of the art gallery. When I saw someone in front of me with a metal coat hanger in her hand and the words “don’t worry, I’m a doctor” scrawled across her t-shirt, I thought I had stumbled upon a bizarre sort of protest. But that still wouldn’t explain the dead animal purse, or would it? Once I had reached the art gallery, it became clear quite quickly that I had arrived at my destination. Never one to shy away from prime photo-taking opportunities, I began snapping shots of people acting so strange; I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I told them later on. I needed photographic evidence. People in bare feet walking around moaning; a man in a three piece suit directing an orchestra that didn’t exist; people with horns, wigs, ripped clothes, umbrellas, bandaged heads... the list goes on and on. I approached one bloody man with a pus-filled, closed eye who was perfectly content to stand next to tourists who were too eager to have their pictures taken with him. I asked him what the occasion was, and he told me it was Vancouver’s Zombie Walk, an event that has been taking place for the last four years when all the living dead can come and shuffle their way en masse from the downtown core to Kitsilano in the eternal search for brains. I’m sorry, I just don’t get it. What is the novelty here? I understand that people like to do ridiculous attention-grabbing things, but when I see these so-called zombies attacking the cars of unsuspecting passers-by and littering the street with their “blood,” I think things have gone too far.