It Only Takes One...

When you tune in to the local news station these days, two major themes are being reported: the gang violence in Metro Vancouver, and the inquiry of the taser-led death of the polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.

For those who don't remember, Mr. Dziekanski arrived at the Vancouver International Airport from Poland on one October night in 2007. After clearing immigration, he was seen wandering in the waiting area for HOURS, and grew increasingly distressed. The surveillance camera showed that Mr. Dziekanski began to set up a barricade using his luggage, and was talking to himself. 4 RCMP officers eventually arrived, and, as some of you may have seen in a graphic and disturbing video, tasered him repeatedly. He eventually died.

The hearing/inquiry aims to investigate whether the RCMP officers did the right thing in handling Mr. Dziekanski’s situation, and whether any foul play was involved in preventing him from receiving first aid treatment after he was tasered. I will not pretend to be a legal expert and predict what the outcome is, nor am I going to say whether the officers were in any way at fault (I do have my doubts as to why they looked at a man holding a stapler in a “combat stance” as dangerous that warrants repeated taser blasts…). I just want to think of what we are doing to our neighbours.

Mr. Dziekanski was on a flight from a foreign country. It is safe to assume that, on that flight, there were others who could speak Polish. It is also safe to assume that during the six or more hours that he was wandering at YVR, there would have been people who saw this really distressed man not finding his way, not finding his family. Had a fellow passenger from the plane took a little time to ask the man if there was something he/she could do, or had there been a staff at YVR who came to his assistance shortly after he was noticed to be wandering, the RCMP officers never would have been dispatched in the first place.

We never think that being kind to those around us could make a world of a difference, could make a difference between life and death. I was at this suicide-assistance training course earlier, and the speaker told us that many people who tried to kill themselves actually just need that ONE person to show them that they are still being cared for. In Mr. Dziekanski’s case, had someone shown care, he might have been led to safety to meet his mother. In the case of those around you who are struggling in life, a word of comfort and support may be all it takes to encourage that person to hold on through the tough times. Why are we still too stingy to express that we care?

It only takes one...

The Root of the Problem

When you have, on average, a gun crime every other day for an entire month (there has been 15 gun incidents the last 30 days), you have a problem. When shots were being fired in the middle of the day, on major streets, in large parking lots of shopping mall, you have a big problem. When people shot a mother right in front of the eyes of her four-year-old child, you have a problem that is almost incomprehensible.

When federal public safety minister Peter Van Loan called Metro Vancouver the “gang capital” (see article) in Canada, he did not say that for effect. Truth is, gang crime has gotten out of hand, and it has become increasingly unsafe to live in the Lower Mainland.

While I appreciate the various levels of government vowing for more police force and stiffer sentences for these criminals, few seem to be talking about the root of the problem: the Lower Mainland is a major hotbed for drug trade, and our justice system has been systematically letting the bad guys get away with either no punishment or a mere slap-in-the-hand penalty. As long as the lucrative profits of drug trades are staying, so would the criminals. We can put out 1000 more law enforcers on the street; they can be working 24-7 to bust crimes; they can even be arresting hundreds of criminals, and the courts can even put these criminals into long sentences… but it still would NOT solve the problem.

The problem is the drug culture here in Western Canada. If we continue to have this cavalier attitude about drugs (in particular, towards marijuana), if the justice system continues to turn a blind eye to the marijuana culture and people in general condone or even endorse it, the problem will persist, because the profit would stay.

Stop suggesting that if marijuana is legalized or de-criminalized, the profit would stop flowing in for the criminals. It won’t. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal, but black-market cigarettes and alcohol are still rampant because criminals can still make a profit through selling “better” cigarettes and alcohol in the black market. What makes marijuana any different?

Look at the recent gang busts and you will see footages of cops carrying bags and bags of marijuana into their police trucks. I know some of you feel that pot-smoking is okay. Look at the killings, look at the violence, think again.

Two Weeks Too Late

For the last few years, I have frequented a senior home in Richmond. It is not because I have a relative living there, but because our church pays a monthly visit to these seniors to sing and play some games with them.

A few weeks ago, we went in with a special mission. As we were approaching Chinese New Year, we went in to take pictures of these seniors. The intent was to take these pictures, develop them, and then put the pictures in a hand-made card to give back to them. It was a fun afternoon watching the seniors pay special attention to their hair and their clothes, even though many of them were so frail they could not even walk. Some seniors were very mindful of their appearance, and we had to reassure them over and over that their smiles are by far the most important thing. And they were – the nicest pictures were the ones where an old man or an old lady was beaming with joy while posing for us.

This past Saturday, we came back to the seniors’ home to deliver our finished products. We have developed our pictures, decorated the hand-made cards, and put them nicely together with our good wishes and what not. When we arrived and saw some of the seniors, they were laughing so joyously when looking at our hand-made cards and the pictures. Pictures were a luxury back in the day, and though technology has advanced to a point where you can take thousands of pictures in a matter of minutes at basically no cost, many of the seniors still kept that old-school feeling of a picture being so precious.

There were a few cards that could not be delivered because we could not find the men and women in the pictures. When we showed the cards to the staff working at the seniors home, she browsed through each card, and told us if the person in picture had gone out with his/her family, or was currently resting in his/her room.

Then came a card where the staff had a long pause. “She passed away last week,” she said calmly. To a person working in a seniors’ home, I guess that was quite a normal event. To me, though, it was a very strong phrase. Here we were, two weeks ago, taking a picture with this old lady. I still remember how careful she was in the way she sat and dressed. I remember her not feeling satisfied with the initial pictures taken, and we had to re-take several more for her until she felt the pictures were done well. Two weeks ago, she was still talking to us rather happily; two weeks later, she is gone, almost forgotten (certainly forgotten by her family, who, according to the worker at the seniors’ home, would not even fly over for her funeral service).

This message was probably preached to you many times in the past, but when it actually happened to someone you know, it hits you hard. Cherish those around you, for they may not be around. Never forget to say “I love you” to those around you who you love – you may never get that chance again…

Rest in peace, Mrs. Au.

A-Rod?! A-Fraud!

Just days after Michael Phelps, one of the biggest names in the sports world, is being hit by controversy, another one is hitting the dust as well. Alex Rodriguez (aka A-Rod), arguably the best baseball player in this generation, has admitted to ESPN that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his days with the Texas Rangers. While the society is still dumb-struck of what Phelps has done, the A-Rod story is quickly taking over in sports radio, news talk, and so on. Michael Phelps is celebrating that he is temporarily off the hook. 

Unlike some of the other names in baseball (Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens), Rodriguez came out relatively quickly to admit what he had done, and apologized for his action. He did not try the “I don’t want to talk about the past” card like Mark McGwire, and did not try to intimidate people into not asking him questions like Bonds and Clemens did. Instead, he borrowed a page from the likes of Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte to somewhat apologize and take ownership of what was done. I guess he would like the public to forgive and forget what he has done, much like how they have treated Giambi and Pettitte. Just the fact that he has apologized, I guess, deserves some credit. 

But the credit stops there. Make this very clear: all of Giambi, Pettitte, and now Rodriguez, are apologizing because they really do not have a better choice. The next baseball player who will publically admit that he has used/is using performance enhancing drugs when there is no allegations/potential charges/indelible evidence about to be leaked would be the first. These players all made a choice to cheat, and would continue to cheat as long as they know they can get away from it. Why are players coming out now about steroid use, and are admitting that they have done it? Because there are reliable tests that can prove, without much of a doubt, that you have used it to make your head five times bigger and your biceps twenty times stronger. There is, to date, no way of testing the use of human growth hormones (HGH) – do you see any player admitting that they are currently using HGH to boost their performances? 

Reports indicated that there were 104 players who tested positive for steroids use prior to the year that steroids use was actually tested. For a league that has between 600 – 700 players, that number is substantial enough that all players are now “guilty by association.” Seriously, can you say, without the shadow of a doubt, that player A, B, or C is clean at this time? Everyone thought Alex Rodriguez was clean, but not anymore… A-Rod was juiced, and probably, many of his peers were as well. There is just no way to know.

The Players, Major League Baseball, and the players’ union have no one to blame but themselves for this credibility crisis. Sure, the media and the fans did not stand up to ask the tough questions during the steroids era when sluggers were suddenly a lot more powerful than they were, but those directly involved are still the ones to blame: the players for using the drugs, the league for turning a blind eye on the situation while their turn-rails were spinning, and the union for doing everything they could to condone this culture of cheating. 

I was a baseball fan in the early 90s, and still follow the sports somewhat closely, but the increasing number of players indicted of cheating has just made the sports less and less appealing to me. If I want to watch fabricated drama, why don’t I just turn onto wrestling? 

Michael Phelps

The recent controversy surrounding Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is losing momentum now, and, as per usual, this is the time when I chime in (never wanted to be the guy who talks about the same thing that everyone else is talking about).

The incident is once again a reminder that sports heroes, movie stars, politicians, and basically celebrities in general, are no angels and are not really worthy to be worshipped as gods or even as idols. Yes, many have inspiring stories to tell, and many can set examples that we can learn from, but like anyone who has ever lived on this face of the earth, they are not perfect individuals. While I still marvel at Michael Phelps’ incredible prowess in the pool, why should I look beyond the individual of the pool and feel he is somehow a superior being? Superior in the pool? Absolutely? A person to learn from? In certain aspects? Someone to become my god? Absolutely not.

If we can move away from this idol-worshiping state in our society, we’d be disappointed far fewer times, and we actually would be better for it. Some people, in particular, would be much better off growing out of this state where a person is either an angel or a devil. Michael Phelps is a perfect example: he was a great Olympic swimmer in the 2004 Olympics already, and remarkably, he topped the performances of 2004 by making history in 2008. His achievements in the pool are indelibly incredible. Having said that, this is the same guy that was caught in a D.U.I. (driving under influence) incident shortly after the Athens Olympics, and is pictured smoking from a “bong” now in a college party. The body of work is quickly building up to suggest that Phelps’ private life is not one people should be looking up to. Ultimately, he may pay dearly for the choices he is making, but like many other individuals facing choices, he is responsible to his own actions, and outsiders like you and I really should not love or hate him for those choices.

Speaking of outsiders, this brings me to the interesting reactions other athletes had on Phelps. One college swimmer, for example, said “I'm not going to hate him forever, but I don't think that he's the role model everyone makes him out to be…” Hate?! Has he hit a family member of yours? I’m glad you are not going to hate him forever, for if you have to hold a grudge that size towards every celebrity that has done something criminal, you are in BIG trouble…

(Local swimmers express disappointment on Phelps)

Sarcasm aside, the reaction to Phelps’ latest trouble by former Olympic, Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati just made me laugh. “I think Michael Phelps is an incredibly talented athlete and it's a shame the media is choosing to focus and scrutinize one photo taken months ago at a private college party. The guy has 14 Olympic medals.” Rebagliati said. The media is choosing to focus and scrutinize on one photo?! If Phelps was not caught smoking pot, there would be no photo to focus and scrutinize from! The guy has 14 Olympic medals?! What is the relevance? We are talking about a sports celebrity making an extremely poor judgement here. OJ Simpson cannot say that his Heisman Trophy has any bearing on his armed robbery trial! Why is Rebagliati so bent out of shape for Phelps? Oh, I get it now – Rebagliati was himself in the center of controversy in the past when his gold medal was temporarily stripped because of a blood test that showed he has smoked pot. From a pot-smoker to a pot-smoker. Incredible credibility, Ross! Michael Jackson defending a pedophile thinks you should keep your mouth shut.

(Rebagliati defends Phelps: fully story)

Phelps made a mistake. It is not a serious enough crime that he should be crucified for it. But should he be receiving a major public relations backlash? You bet he should. Should he be punished for it? As long as marijuana is an illegal substance, why in the world not?