The mention of Cancun itself brings sunny beaches to mind but unfortunately as soon as the plane landed the sky seemed to have decided to give the land some watering. The locals, however, were quite relieved, welcoming their first rain after so many months. My wife thought it was extremely unbelievable, blaming me for bringing the rain from Vancouver. Anyways, after secretly praying hard for the rain to go away (and to make my wife happy again) it did stop the next day and we had that glorious sun for the rest of our stay. Really thankful for an answered prayer I was inspired to write a new poem - rain rain go away make my wife happy again!
Our Cancunite host has never been to Canada so he asked if Vancouver was really beautiful, and I said yes, so long as it’s not raining and so long as you don’t think of the taxes. Oh, and I added, as it was the week of games 4 and 5 that we were there, so long as the Canucks are not in the finals. He seemed a bit puzzled so I had to describe to him the riot of 1994 after the Canucks lost to the Rangers. How true was my annotation. Just a day after returning from our holidays, this new version of the riot happened. See, I told my wife, it’s not only the rain that follows me around.
That riot clearly showed a hypocritical side of the Vancouver society. Here, they constantly proclaim, is the best livable city in the world. Of course we get our fair share of crime and a riot here and there, but just think about it. The riots we’ve seen anywhere else in the world - like those U.S. anti Vietnam war riots in the 60s, or the recent riots in the Middle East - were politically ignited. Those rioters have an agenda and believed in a mission. The truth is that those riots pale in comparison with ours here in Vancouver, just with the mere fact that nobody knows for sure why we are rioting. It’s not about the Canucks winning or losing.
People who will just suddenly be overcome with a mob mentality to destroy and create havoc without any purpose at all is a more dangerous society. Amazingly the city leaders - the mayor, council and police - conveniently deceived themselves to believe a riot like that of 1994 will not happen. Clearly these guys were either incompetent or playing kangaroo politics (hey, I’ve watched enough Blue Bloods and Chicago Code to know about politicking and bickering at city hall). The fact that they were quick to dismiss the riot as the work of a small group of “criminals”, “thugs” and “anarchists” show the limits of their capabilities (if that was a small group indeed then why were they not able to round them up right there and then). If they ask me, the next time the Canucks go into the finals (ugh when will that ever be again) - the games should be held somewhere in Surrey near the U.S. border (just so they might cross the line without passports and see what those border guards will do) or maybe that bull farm in Pitt Meadows (see how it feels to be gored by them bulls). Better still we should be praying for heavy torments of rain when they play in town. Nothing dampens the adrenalin better than the cold Vancouver rains. Oops, I feel another poem coming, something like - “rain rain go away, come again on riot day!”
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