the UGLY Chinese Canadian

Last week, I decided that it’s been a slice.

So I’m going to retire this blog.

I may start it back up again, or add thoughts now and then… but realized that all the bitching in the world isn’t going to change things overnight.

It’s been great meeting a great number of you. And some of you, I now consider dear friends, even though we’ve never met in the flesh.

We all share one thing in common: Our love for Canada.

I wish you all well, and I dedicate this last post to those who have graced our lives during the time this blog had been up, but are no longer with us:

Roy Mah, Gim Huey, George Yu and Don Lee. Chinese-Canadians, yes, but in my eyes, just darn decent Canadians.

Good luck all and please keep in touch… and stay involved in your community. Thanks.

tUCC

LMAO “LAffiNg mY Ass OFf”

Couldn’t help but to break out in a big smile this morning.

Vancouver Sun’s political columnist Vaughan Palmer wrote a piece in today’s Sun describing a speech given by one of our more outspoken MLAs, Mr Harry Lali (MLA for Yale-Lillooet). Normally, the politically incorrect UGLY Chinese Canadian writes about his own kind, but wtf, Canadians are Canadians …and it’s refreshing to learn that brown Canadians also diss each other.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian always takes a shine to intelligent politicians, no matter their political stripes (…well, most Canadian political stripes). Mr Lali is no exception – he often speaks his mind.

Today, Mr Palmer wrote the following bit attributed to MLA Lali upon the departure of a fellow MLA, Corky Evans:

Lali’s ‘tribute’ to Corky Evans reopens old NDP wounds

“Tribute to Conrad St. George ‘Corky’ Evans,” […]

“Inspirational, passionate, motivator, mentor, icon, visionary, populist, social democrat, conscience of the NDP, friend,” Lali was quoted as saying.

“These are just some of the words that come to mind as I pay tribute to my good friend and to one of the most honourable parliamentarians to grace the British Columbia political scene in my lifetime.”

So far, so good. But the always scrappy Lali couldn’t leave it at that. After a couple of more paragraphs of tribute he moved on to settle some longstanding scores with other members of the NDP, current and former.

“In a political world full of pollsters, pundits and pretenders, too many leaders put politics before principle,” Lali said, warming to his theme.

“It was British Columbia’s loss that the New Democrats in 2000 chose a pretentious leader who put political expediency before principle instead of electing a visionary like Corky.”

The leader who “put expediency before principle” was Ujjal Dosanjh, then a New Democrat, now a federal Liberal member of Parliament.
[… link to article here]

Yup. That Ujjal Dosanjh.

Dosanjh, a former card carrying Communist (Marxist-Leninist) member who left this party to join the New Democratic Party of BC goes to prove how stupid (blind?) Canadians are. True to himself, Ujjal later went on to conveniently help trip up then NDP leader and then Premier of our province, Glen Clark. Poor ol’ Glen. A bright character who had the misfortune to meet the Ujj.

With great friends like Dosanjh, who’d need an Enema.

With Ujjal Dosanjh elbowing in as the “leader” of the New Democratic Party of BC, the Party’s rapid demise was assured.

After steering the New Democratic Party to a severe election defeat, Dosanjh the chameleon jumped ship (again) to join the Federal Liberal Party. Much to the chagrin of loyal NDP’ers.

But that’s not the end.

Dosanjh survives an embarassing Marijuana grow-op at his rental property [see here and here], only to learn of fellow Liberal MP, David Emerson (MP, Vancouver Kingsway) defection to the Conservatives (14 days after voters re-elected Emerson as a Liberal), Dosanjh had the audacity to call Emerson a “turncoat”.

Shameful. It’s worst than having a kettle call the stove black. Mr Dosanjh must either think that Canadians are stupid or that we share the same sort of loyalty he demonstrates.

But thankfully, there are politicians like Mr. Lali who has the balls to state it on public record - for calling a spade a spade.

Canada needs more politicians with balls of brass … not more limp noodles or  Vote Entrepreneurs.

One of the better sites on Chinese-Canadian history has been the on-line resource site by the Vancouver Public Library (VPL). It has long been a favourite mouse stop for those who wanted information on Chinese-Canadians written in the English language.

In fact, most informative and historic information on Chinese-Canadians is written in the English language, (as we were informed hardly any Chinese-Canadian history material exists in the Chinese language). Kind of ironic when you really think about it. Perhaps someone should translate some of the available material for Chinese readers …and encourage knowledge about the history of the people(s) who helped build this nation.

In any case, many of you are familiar with the world wide user base Wikipedia – where volunteer contributors share information (real and otherwise).

__________________________________________________________________

Wiki

Wi·ki \ (noun) … http://www.uglychinesecanadian.com

a Hawaiian word for “fast”. A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

________________________________________________________________

The VPL is proposing the same – a wiki based site on Chinese Canadians. From the VPL news release website:

Wiki to Tell Stories of First Chinese-Canadians

May 28, 2008

(Vancouver B.C.) – Building on the success of the Chinese-Canadian Genealogy website, Vancouver Public Library and Library and Archives Canada have come together to provide a dynamic forum in which to collect and tell the stories of individuals who were born in Canada before 1901 to parents of Chinese origin.

The Chinese-Canadian History Wiki (http://ccgwiki.vpl.ca/) will create a unique record of the late 19th and early 20th century Chinese community in Canada. The wiki will reflect the long history of this community which dates back at least to the late 1850s when the first Chinese migrants arrived in British Columbia by way of California, attracted by the discovery of gold on the Fraser River

This is the first public wiki project developed by the Vancouver Public Library and is a pilot project for Library and Archives Canada, which is funding this new initiative. [… more]

————

Kind of interesting that the VPL used the header “First Chinese Canadians”. I guess others are now getting the point that there are subtle differences within this perceived monolithic community.

Is smaller better?

Over the past recent years, it appears that the Chinese-Canadian community in our provincial capital of Victoria seem to have their act together better than Vancouver.

First, let’s look at their presence though their web portal.

Vancouver’s defacto Chinese community website, the Chinese Cultural Centre, is offline again… at least the English portion of it. It seems to be “under construction” all the time (the “Coming Soon” banner has been there for at least 9+ months).

Victoria’s on the other hand, is full of information …and is updated regularly.

Victoria’s web presence also have had many interesting stories relating to the history of the Chinese community in Canada (earlier blogpost: Happy 150 years). Vancouver’s? Nothing to write home about.

The province of British Columbia is celebrating 150 years, and the Victoria Chinese Canadian community has been actively getting pumped for this 150 event – with celebrations, stories and the preparation of a list of significant Chinese Canadians: A 1,000 Chinese Canadian Heroes list.

Is Vancouver’s Chinatown a reflection of the sorry state of the City’s community? Community size is not indicative, and has nothing to do with it. Afterall, Vancouver’s physical Chinatown (and percentage of ethnic Chinese) is at least double if not quadruple the size of Victoria’s.

So what gives?

Is it leadership… or lack of it?

Have a look at the sad, deteriorating state of Vancouver’s Chinese Cultural Centre - broken pavement, broken brick pavers, dirty walls, dirty flooring, dingy exteriors, vacant lease spaces, the smell of urine outside and inside the Centre …and also reflect on the fact, the Centre has been on financial life support on and off for the past many years.

Had it not been for the generous donation of the new Chinatown gate fronting the CCC, the old, poorly maintained and rotting (Expo 86) gate would have dropped a piece of it’s kitsch on to some poor tourist’s noggin.

We’ll post some photos later.

Here’s a snippet from a Victoria NEWS article (May 30, 2008) written about Victoria’s Chinatown last week:

Chinese-Canadian heritage celebrated

An emperor sent from centuries past burst into the Pender Island Ballroom of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Victoria this week to decree the week of Aug. 3-10 Chinese-Canadian Heritage Days.

As well as being B.C.’s 150th birthday, 2008 also marks 150 years since the first Chinese immigrants travelled halfway around the world seeking new opportunities.

But the path was met with prejudice and poverty. Most could not return home and many died working dangerous jobs in mines and on railways.

In 1858, a few Chinese merchants set up shop at the end of Cormorant Street and from that Victoria’s Chinatown blossomed.

Today, Chinatown is the oldest in Canada, and the second oldest in North America [more …].

——-

There’s something to be said about the health of a community as reflected in it’s iconic flagship institution. Maybe the guys in Vancouver’s Chinatown should stop fighting amongst themselves and instead, get together and fight to save their CCC.

Reader ChineseCanuck came up with this apt description: “Passport Canadians” in response to our post “NOT made in Canada”. And just what is a “Passport Canadian“? Well, since this blog has been swimming within the Chinese-Canadian community, let’s present a definition here:

__________________________________________________________________

Passport Canadians

Pass-port (adj)| Ca·na’di·an\ (noun) … http://www.uglychinesecanadian.com

1. An Opportunist. Persons who obtain Canadian citizenship as a convenient opportunity to exploit.
2. A User. A User of Canada’s social infrastructures and institutions as an insurance policy, and not pay for it with their own tax dollars.
3. A Leech on Canadian society. A legal Canadian, but in reality, a non-Resident, after obtaining Canadian citizenship – returns back to the person’s true place of origin.

__________________________________________________________________

We all know of these low lifes. Opportunists who milk our social safety nets for their own personal gain at the expense of real Canadians.

Here’s a thought the UGLY Chinese Canadian would like to poise to a few of the current hopefuls running for public office:

My neighbours have worked hard and contributed taxes their entire lives here in Canada. The old guy was over 80 years old, had fallen down, and was looking for a hip replacement or something.

But nope.

Old man Canadian taxpayer could not receive medical treatment right away, but had to wait a few years for it …because not one, but a boatload of legal and illegal immigrants had jumped the queue and contributed to the backlog. Clever new Canadians! They’ve learned that if they have a life or death situation (aka: “owch I think I got a heart condition” or “I’m sick, so don’t be a racist and deport me”)… yes, these brilliant folks and their supporters get bumped to the front of the line.

Like a snowball’s chance in hell, it is unlikely that the cue jumpers nor their families had contributed much to the building of our nation, let alone our medical system. They’re a new class of Canadians. The Passport Canadians. Some of them have even figured out how to NOT pay for this medical treatment. No matter how costly it is. All they have to do is ignore the bills and hightail it back to their real homelands after the treatments. They know that there are Canadian Taxpayers to pick up the bill, and politicians to pander about should they need to use the ‘R’ word.

After all, Canada is known to not turn away anyone seeking medical help.

And old man Canadian? What has become of him?

He died waiting. Yup, poor sod. That’s what you get for being an honest Canadian.

And then there are those who hold dual passports.

Back during the days of the 1997 Hong Kong return back to China, we met all sorts of Hong Kongers who had to reside in Canada for 6 months + one day to serve their time in their efforts to become a Passport Canadian. These clever cheaters held other passports at the same time.

So they would fly into Canada, bus over to the United States, show a piece of Canadian ID to cross the border, then hop back on a plane over to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, dumbass Canadians would assume that Hop Sing was still in the country.

We assume this sort of sleaze has now been closed up with all this border security and all. But of recent, there is now all this talk about the Hong Kong-Canadian opportunists obtaining Chinese (mainland China) passports by converting their old Hong Kong Identity cards.

All this opportunism so that these Passport Canadians can save a few dollars on entry visas and stuff. But here’s some news for them (from Voyage Canada):

Canadians of Chinese origin should be aware of serious personal security issues before travelling to China. There have been a number of recent cases of Canadian-Chinese dual nationals experiencing difficulties, even though they entered the People’s Republic of China using a Canadian passport.

Dual nationality is not recognized in China. Travellers should ensure that they are well informed regarding Chinese law as it relates to determination and loss of Chinese citizenship. Recognition of Canadian citizenship is not automatic.

According to the Consular Agreement between Canada and the People’s Republic of China, Chinese authorities should consider Canadian-Chinese dual nationals entering on a Canadian passport as a Canadian citizen. However, consular assistance has been denied to Chinese-Canadians even though they had entered on a Canadian passport. Canadian-Chinese dual nationals using Chinese travel documents to enter China, have and will be denied Canadian consular services.

It is important to note that Chinese authorities have and will refuse Canadian consular officials access to Canadians of Chinese origin who are detained in the People’s Republic of China. […]

So let’s see if we understand the potential headaches for the Passport Canadian:

Passport Canadian, Mr. Hop Sing temporarily ditches his newly obtained Canadian passport to hide his convenient Canadian citizenship so that he could freely waltz back and forth from HK to China and avoid visa fees, red tape, and more important, taxes and tariffs.

Where upon in China, Hop Sing gets caught boning someone, gets tossed in the slammer.

Where upon Hop Sing cries the blues and wails, “ai-yoh…I’m (actually) a Canadian!” But wait, the Chinese authorities state that you came in as a Chinese citizen, therefore you are Chinese.

So what happens next, dear reader?

Nope.

But he got smacked by a cop cruiser at the end.

Something different blogged here on the UGLY Chinese Canadian today: A naked wild and crazy wacko was caught by the eye in the Sky video courtesy of Global News… during Monday morning’s rush hour in Metro Vancouver. The reckless clown drove a large 5 ton truck for approximately half an hour, smashing into vehicles and making U turns in the middle of the highway.

Interesting start to the week.

Nice take down by our finest …

It is with great sadness, to inform fellow Vancouverites the news that we’ve lost another respected son of our City.

Don Lee was a former City of Vancouver Councillor, and was a current School Board Trustee. He was also a former high school teacher.

Don was my old Math teacher, and kept in touch with me – the old trouble maker known as the UGLY Chinese Canadian. I will miss sharing the apple tart lunches we had at the old NewTown Bakery, and the inside stories of our City, our CC community, and it’s Politics. Don often had a sparkle in his eye when we chatted. He always enjoyed the fact that at least one of his classroom clowns actually grew up … and, in this case, started blogging.

He was an inspiration for me, and shared many old stories of the early struggles Chinese Canadians had in this nation. Don often spoke about his first gig as a teacher over in Ontario back in the 60’s – because job doors were closed here in BC for the Chinese.

Yes, Don will be missed.

Here’s what the Georgia Straight wrote of Don Lee:

School trustee and former councillor Don Lee dies

Vancouver school trustee and former councillor Don Lee died over the weekend.

Lee, who was admired by many for his integrity and hard work, had been staying in a hospice.

He was born in China in the mid-1930s. His mother died when he was very young; his father worked as a janitor in Canada.

Lee couldn’t move to Canada to be reunited with his father until he was 13 years old. That was because of a law banning Chinese immigration to this country until 1947.

So he was raised by relatives in China, and didn’t arrive in Vancouver until 1949.

From that point on, he was a latchkey kid because his father worked at night as a janitor. Lee once told the Straight that he regretted not spending more time with his dad.

Lee worked extremely hard, made it into UBC, and eventually became a math teacher.

He said that he studied math because he could then become a teacher without having to speak English flawlessly.

He taught for 26 years at Templeton secondary school.

“As a teacher, I treat my students in a very decent way,” Lee told the Straight in 2002.

He also did the same for the citizens after he was elected to Vancouver city council in 1996.

In those days, Chinese-speaking residents from across the city often contacted the indefatiguable Don Lee for help. This meant that he probably had twice the workload of some of his colleagues.

Lee’s political stances often brought him in conflict with many left-wing activists, but he always acted with civility.

He had a favourable view of the Wal-Mart proposal in Southeast Vancouver, saying it would benefit poor immigrants who were looking for lower prices.

As a councillor, he also raised concerns about the Four Pillar approach for dealing with drug addiction. In the end, he and the NPA caucus supported the staff recommendations.

Despite this, he was painted as a reactionary in Nettie Wild’s documentary Fix, which was distributed before the 2002 civic election.

The film left the impression that NPA Mayor Philip Owen was driven from office by conservative forces within his own party–a view that Lee and his fellow NPA councillors adamantly rejected.

“I feel that that film is the most horrible film ever,” Lee said in an interview with the Straight in 2002.

He maintained that Jennifer Clarke, the NPA’s 2002 mayoral candidate, asked Owen if he intended to run. And if so, then Clarke said she would not put her name forward as the NPA’s mayoral candidate.

“I’m so sad that Jennifer didn’t write it in a letter form,” Lee said at the time. “I worked with Jennifer for six years. I feel that if she said it many many times….I believe that statement.”

Lee opposed individual compensation for head-tax payers, even though he was a victim of the exclusion of Chinese immigrants to Canada from 1923 to 1947.

He often aligned himself with the federal Liberals, and played an important role behind the scenes in helping David Emerson win the Vancouver Kingsway seat in the 2004 federal election over the NDP’s Ian Waddell.

Lee also helped promote the mayoral aspirations of Sam Sullivan, with whom he sat on council for six years.

“Don was a great public servant, a trusted advisor and a good friend,” Sullivan said in a news release issued today. “We can all be inspired by Don’s legacy of community service and his unwavering effort to help those less fortunate.”

Remember the old TV commericals that warned “Intel inside”?

That was the favourite line from our Apple Mac colleagues who relished in the dissing of anything non-Apple PC : “Intel inside” was the World’s most recognized Warning label. The irony in this of course, is that the latest generation of Macs are intel based.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that products that had the label “Made in Canada” or “Product of Canada” must now be almost entirely Canadian – of origin, and of production.

You’d think that this would be a no brainer, eh?

Not so.

An old TV documentary last year clearly stated that a large percentage of goods brandishing a “Made in Canada” label, was in fact bogus. Shucksters out there had figured that as long as the overall cost of producing the product amounted to 51% (including product item, packaging and labeling) “Canadian”, the product could be identified as “Canadian” in origin.

So, we have had Italian olives marketed as “Product of Canada” because the worth of the glass jar was more than the edible olives; or pineapples hailing from Canada because the fancy box was worth more than the fruit…

The UGLY Chinese Canadian then ponders:

What would have happened if the “Made in China” toys (with that poisonous Lead, heavy metal and other crap) had in fact been identified as “Made in Canada” or “Made in the USA”? Afterall, the source of most of the lead paint on those toys had originated here in North America. Hmmmmm…

Back to topic.

We’re glad to see that Canada is now plugging up some of the loopholes, to hopefully prevent sleazy operators from shucking their crap as made in Canada products, when clearly, their crap originated from elsewhere. Here is a snippet from today’s Toronto Star:

[…] Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced his government is planning regulations to ensure that ingredients produced in foreign countries are kept out of items carrying the “Product of Canada” label.

Current rules allow use of that label or “Made in Canada” even if a substantial portion of the product – up to half – comes from foreign sources, Harper said.

“The truth is, foods marked `Product of Canada’ or `Made in Canada’ may not be very Canadian at all,” he said during a press conference at a berry farm in the Niagara region.

“A bottle of apple juice labelled as `Made in Canada’ might have been made from apples grown in China, Harper said. And a bar of chocolate might be marked as a Canadian product but be made with cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast.”

Under the new rules, a “product of Canada” label will mean all or virtually all the contents are Canadian in origin. […]

The UGLY Chinese Canadian wonders if our Government would take this idea one further.

If a person, say originally from Hong Kong, becomes a “Canadian Citizen”, then squirrels back to HK shortly after he and his family gets their passport – and never becomes a contributing member of our nation, does that mean they would lose their Canadian citizenship?

Get y’r FREE Canadian Passport with every Gas fill up

Think about it. Are these “Canadians” still real Canadians if they don’t live here, don’t eat here, don’t work here, don’t participate here and don’t die here? Maybe they should be labeled as part-time Canadians.

Part-time Canadians who know nothing of our current issues, never participate in our elections, evade taxes and all that other good stuff, but only carry a passport that is renewed every few years or so. It seems that the only time these Part-timers contribute to our Canadian economy is when they pay the airport maintenance tax when they fly back to their real homelands after renewing their little blue book.

Something to ponder about, eh Mr Harper?

The UGLY Chinese Canadian has a new definition:
__________________________________________________________________

Canadian 加拿大人

http ://www.uglychinesecanadian.com

Ca·na’di·an\ (noun) … http://www.uglychinesecanadian.com

1. a person who lives in the Great White North
2. an apathetic TAXpayer who is a member of a silly, naive, gullible nation of suckers

(syn) Fool, Sucker, Numbnut, Chump

known in the Chinese language as a jianadaren 加拿大人
_________________________________________

For the past couple of decades, the UGLY Chinese Canadian has been ranting to his belly ache’s content the sad state of affairs our Nation has become.

As a nation, we are allowing cheats, rip-off artists, opportunists and other sleazebags to take advantage of the goodness and kindness that is the foundation of our country.

We assume that everyone who becomes a Canadian, will share in our values. Values of integrity, honesty, fairness and generosity. Fat chance. These are strange values to some.

In fact, in some places, the word “Canadian” is now associated as one of being “Naive”. You know, a Sucker. Remember this blog post we cobbled together last year: “Canadian businesses love Anal Sex”?

Some people who become Canadian citizens, know how to take advantage of the social safety nets that are in place for Canadians. But truthfully, it is known that there are numbers of convenient Canadians who take advantage of our generosity – by only taking and not contributing. These are the sleazes who get the passports then return back to their real homelands. Sleazes who only appear back in Canada to suck at our social institutions - medical care, education, welfare etc.

We remember well, this one sleaze from Singapore, whose entire family was collecting welfare – from Granny down to grandkids… “citizens” who never actually lived in Canada – never paying their fare share of taxes. They lived in their real home of Singapore earning millions, and still leached off our social safety net.

Just like the whiners who bitched about Canada’s slow response to rescuing “Canadians” from Lebanon’s turmoil. Then after things settled down, the usual thing happened. Everyone went back to their real homeland.

That was years ago, and nothing’s changed. And all decent Canadians are still getting screwed.
______________________________________________________

Here’s what the National Post’s Diane Francis has to say:

Canada: sucker nation part II

Posted: May 13, 2008 by Diane Francis

Canadians are angry about the open-ended, naïve entitlements handed out by governments in this country which have led to widespread expatriate fraud, tax evasion and health care, entitlements scams. We are a nation of involuntary Santas handing out money and services without policing or controls.

Giving away billions on the basis of the honor system is negligence and beginning more than one week ago I decided to revisit these issues following some leaked information from inside government sources as well as concerned Canadian taxpayers. I’ve written hundreds of columns and a couple of books about rip-offs.
Here’s information from a chartered accountant who agrees with me that reforms are long overdue. He has an important suggested reform that I have written about and reveals examples of misbehavior that most of us have come across or know about first-hand.

[…]

Ms Francis has a lot more to say (read it here).

All of it real. And all of it makes you want to cry, or at least wanting to start a new business, “Canadians ‘R’ us” to start deporting sleazes along with their pandering politicians to the middle of the friggen Pacific Ocean.

_____________________________
As a visible member of one of Canada’s often photo ‘opped ethnic community, the UGLY Chinese Canadian knows first hand, the efforts made by many of our vote grubbing politicians. Could this appeasing to the ethnic vote be a reason why there has been no real leadership by our politicians?

Take for instance, the thought of “let’s re-visit our immigration laws…”, instead of intelligent discussion, we get popularity challenged politicians waffling on this topic.

Their waffling is costing us real Canadians, bleeding our coffers to the opportunists.

This is the price we Canadians are paying because we play dead. Our political apathy is allowing gutless, pandering politicians to get into office.

So, here is a possible solution to all of this. The UGLY Chinese Canadian, or is that Dr. UGLY Chinese Canadian, prescribes the following remedy:

If any of you are bored, try a favourite game of the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s:

Show up at a political rally and call a round eye political candidate a Racist, or an obvious Fresh off the boat candidate, an embarrassment to Canada.

Come on folks. Have some fun and get involved in our political process. There’s nothing like showing up at a Meet and Greet the candidate, TRIP up a bunch of cheering lap dogs, and jerk an intelligence challenged candidate around.

Yes, it is a lot of fun making candidates turn several shades of red. It’s your duty as a real Canadian, eh.

For all my dear *new* immigrant neighbours…

What’s all this talk about Canada being a tolerant country? You must think it has always been like this, huh?

What a nice swell nation our cute little Canada is, eh?

Just remember our history. Read about our struggles and our triumphs.

So you just got off the boat, and now you’re a Canadian.

Ain’t it wonderful to bask it our great “Multi-cultural” society? Ain’t it neat to yap in Chinese or some other language? Ain’t it just dandy that we’ve got all these clowns in their diversity industries and multi-cultural rackets just sucking up to you?

Well, Wake up.

.
Open your squints.

Don’t take your acceptance for granted. Just because a few champagne socialists spends our tax dollars to celebrate a few ethnic photo ops, don’t think that you’re going to get away with being insular.

What you happy Pollyanas don’t realize is that previous generations of Canadians fought and built this country for you and for your fruit of your loins.

Respect that.

Yes, our Canada is not as whacked out like some other racist places on our planet – where a surname could forever place you under someone else’s foot. No, Canada is not like that, but we do have our share of rednecks and racists. Some of them disguising themselves as “Human Rights Activists”.

Here’s what we found on the Net in the few short days after the terrible human tragedy that is unfolding in Sichuan province … only a few short days after the 7.9 richter scale earthquake.

Racism Toward China, Sichuan EarthQuake

From the BCTV website:

Mike
The Chinese Government has plenty of resources to help their own people. What happened was a terrible tragedy, but there are many other countries that would benefit more from our aid.

---

Ken Lawson
No aid for China period from Canadians, if Chinese Canadians send it must be tax. Too much money is beening funnelled out of Canada to support programs in China.

Burma and Tibet must looked after first, China can help itself period.

and check out the trail of comments on CTV:

Steve in Aylmer
Where does it say in this report that China is looking for your financial help?

They don’t need our brain-power, they don’t our money, they don’t need anything from Canada. Seriously, does it hurt your ego that they’re not calling for our assistance.

What you do in a situation like this is act with some class, offer a hand even if they don’t ask.

If they refuse, offer prayers and compassion- its free.

Brian
why doesn’t the Chinese government re-allocate the funds it uses to oppress the Tibetan people? If we aid China with this disaster, while China continues to pour resources into murdering and oppressing the people of Tibet, aren’t we in effect oppressing and murdering the people of Tibet? I pray for the families affected that their government will show compassion and take care of all people.

Thankfully, the comments are balanced with real Canadians who can see through all of this, demonstrating to the World that there are indeed, decent and compassionate Canadians:

Magician
How many of those “human rights” activists, who were all in an uproar recently,
portraying themselves as the true guardians of Chinese people’s human rights, where are they now?
Have these groups done anything substantive to help the Chinese people in this time of need?
All the protesters in London , Paris during the Olympic torch relay, shouting slogans about human rights, have each of them done anything to help the Chinese people now?
Why do I sense the answer is rather depressing?
The same people who say we shouldn’t give a cent in aid would be the first to harp about human rights and their supposed “care” and support for people’s rights.

And there are other decent Canadians, such as this one “Love Me Tender“.

Thankfully not all Canadian blogs are as crass and as rude as mine, the UGLY Chinese Canadian. Not everyone can stomach this blog… so a lot of decent people would never glance these rants.

So what is the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s point in dissing some of you *newer* Canadians?

Simple.

Just be more of a participant here in Canada. Earning your citizenship means you have to share in our history, learn about our warts and work hard to support good leadership. Understand why rednecks feel the way they do, and prove them otherwise.

Our earlier generation of Chinese Canadians had struggled hard to earn what we have here today. So, don’t allow opportunistic Chinese-Canadians (newbie and banana types) to erode this credibility …and give reasons for rednecks to thrive.

Just one parting shot from me:

Just because “you” may dislike a current government, should not mean you should also hate it’s people. No one wants to be born impoverished, or to have a crappy government, or to suffer a calamity.

It’s not Karma … Karma does not inflict pain and suffering on the innocent.

What separates Canadians and a majority of good people on our planet is the ability to empathize and to show compassion to another human being.

How many dollars or things does one really need anyways?

The people affected by this earthquake needs our help… We live in a decent country, I can always work and earn some cash. It’s only money … and that’s all I can give to help for now.

I hope you feel the same way too.

Ways to donate:

Canadian Red Cross

World Vision Canada

Canadian Medical Assistance Teams

Vancouver’s Chinese community has been quick to rally to the plight of survivors to yesterday’s earthquake in southwestern China.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian received some early first hand communications from friends presently visiting China, and everyone is hoping that they can help in the relief effort.

On the flip side, we also see some of the ugliness of our human species.

What is disturbing is some of the garbage being disseminated out on the web – diatribes like, ” they deserve it …it’s Karma, because China this, therefore China that …” or, “it’s the mandate of Heaven, like in 1976…” “… we’ve already given China lots of financial aid for business blah blah blah…”

For these insecure little wankers, there really isn’t much decent folks can do to change these myopic perceptions.

Quick to the call for help, was the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s mom.

On the day after Canada’s Mother’s day, good ol’ mom, along with her nattering old granny pals started organizing efforts to assist in the relief effort …this on top of their efforts on the other Asian crises – the devastating Burmese cyclone and the ice storms that had ravaged China.

I will be helping mom out on her efforts – a bevy of old women, who in Vancouver has done some amazing humanitarian work. The UGLY Chinese Canadian is proud of his mom, a woman, who during the mid-1970’s demonstrated to Vancouver’s community that a “Chinese” person was capable of showing that race and ethnicity should never intrude on doing acts of kindness.

I remember well, Mom’s efforts in supporting and rallying the Chinese Canadian community to assist in the relief efforts for the Italian earthquake, then again in Northern China earthquake of 1976.

___________________

There will be a lot of pleas for monetary donation and from those hoping to tug at heart strings. Please be vigilant and be aware that there will be creeps soliciting funds for enriching their own pocketbooks.

Check the credibility and the legitimacy of canvassers, and who they actually represent.

It is best to donate directly to the organizations through their real websites, and not through some intermediary.

Canada’s Fairchild media is currently organizing a donation campaign with the HSBC bank, in addition, the Chinese Benevolent Association in Vancouver meets today to discuss aid plans to help the victims of the earthquake.

The Canadian Red Cross also has a direct donation link through their Paypaq site.

From the Shanghaiist, here are some info for support of relief efforts currently underway in China

You can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan.

They have also published an emergency relief hotline, along with bank account information to receive donations to assist their cause:

Account name: Red Cross Society of China
开户单位：中国红十字会总会

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below:
人民币开户行: 中国工商银行 北京分行东四南支行
人民币账号: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below:
外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行
外币账号: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610) 65139999
Online donations: Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn
Click the tab for online donations.

It’s now down to the wire.

Political Party membership sign-ups for the nomination battles that will see who will lead each respective party into Vancouver’s Fall municipal election.

With approximately 40% of the population in the City proper, the Chinese Canadian community is said to be the king maker for our City’s next Mayor. The Mayor who will be presiding over the 2010 Olympic thing.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian has been in touch with most of the candidates, and is watching this race with interest.

In reality, the only candidates who show up on the radar screen in the Chinese Canadian community are:
Al DeGenova (Vision Vancouver), Raymond Louie (Vision Vancouver), Sam Sullivan (NPA) and Peter Ladner (NPA). Vision Vancouver candidate, Gregor Robertson has retained a paid Chinese phone bank to solicit support. Truthfully, we don’t think Robertson will garner any significant Chinese community support. UGLY has received almost a dozen calls from his campaign … and it’s still ‘NO’.

A few of these hopefuls have the Chinese language – or shows a relationship to the Chinese Canadian community, on their website.

Peter Ladner’s has the most comprehensive Chinese webpage: http://www.peterladner.ca/why_peter_chinese.php

Raymond Louie’s has five different languages, including, Chinese, Tagalog (Philipino), Italian, Spanish and Punjabi: http://raymondlouie.ca/languages/zh/

Al DeGenova’s website has a page devoted to his strong connection to Chinatown: http://www.allandegenova.com/thingsAboutAl4.aspx

So here’s a thought:

Does presenting web information in Chinese help your efforts? Remember, Vancouver’s Chinese is not the monolithic united community most pundits paint it to be.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian has an interesting thought for Mayoral and other prospective political wannabes. And that thought is: which of the so-called “groups” within the monolithic Chinese Canadian community would access (and read) your Chinese language Web bumph? The UGLY Chinese Canadian will offer an insight into this fractured community – but will save it for a future Blog Post.

What can be said, as documented on exit polls – is that some Politicians have successfully figured out how to crack this community access. The key is in who you have on your “Chinese” media/ outreach team… and to which Chinese “group” this person has the network reach.

Unfortunately, most candidates who try to tap into the Chinese Canadian community, grab the first Chinese face who happens to claim expertise (and they all do). Often leading to disappointment.

Again, we will save this thought for a future Blog post (in Part II: how to reach into Vancouver’s Chinese community).

So what are some of the issues that Vancouver’s Chinese community slag about?

We hear the usual fluff issues – drug and crime, downtown eastside bums, honesty, housing, transportation, integrity… blah blah blah. Really, most Vancouver citizens have heard all of this before. If any of these candidates are interested on the real trigger hair issues for some in the local Chinese Canadian community, here’s a few to consider:

1. The proposed nearby Waterfront Soccer Stadium. A real stupid location according to many in Chinatown. Even local giants like Architects Arthur Erikson and Bing Thom says it’s foolish. Sullivan is on record as supporting this stadium location.
2. Survival of the old heritage clan organizations. Like D.O.A. says, “Talk – Action = Zero”
3. The Chinatown Pagoda. The unwillingness of past councils to accommodate this feature attraction (due to accessibility issues) still have some proponents quite rankled.
4. of which, point #3, leads straight into: “What’s in it for me?” And for those trying to make a statement, had better have an answer to: “what are your thoughts on the Life and Death of Chinatown?”
5. and then there is that real scary query: Tibet.

Vision has two strong candidates in the eyes of Vancouver’s Chinese community – local born son, Raymond Louie, and the affable Al DeGenova. Either one of these fellows running against Sam Sullivan, will easily take away a chunk of the “Chinese” vote.

And should Peter Ladner decide to run as an Independant,

Ladner will split the “Right” - as he is a very popular and a highly respected businessman and City Councilor.

This time, it will not be a cakewalk for incumbent Mayor Sullivan, current leader of the right of center NPA civic party.

So if all the cards fall in place with Ladner running as an independent, and with either Louie or DeGenova running… Sullivan may just as well kiss the Mayor’s chair Zai Jian 再見 (hasta la vista, baby).

—

Last week, the Georgia Straight’s Carlito Pablo prepared the following article:

Chinese vote up for grabs in mayoral election