600000 Chilean students strike to protest Chile's education law. Police fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters. The more recent protests are part of a movement called "The Pinguin Revolution", a student activist movement to reform the education system.
In this post, I cover racism in Montreal, some Big Brother Au and Uk, a dreamlog, the problem with digg, the Motorola Q, Quebec separatism and a few other things.
Another entry into my dreamlog, last night's dream brought in some nice science-fiction elements, probably because I watched Doctor Who last night before going to bed.
I am part of this ecclectic squad of adventurers and we are investigating a space-ship. We are shooting down rat-like creatures. We suddenly hear some noises behind us and hide. We see other aliens trying to do the same thing. We pretend to be cow like aliens and they ignore us and blast through. We go back and reassess our tactics
I am trying get from a town back to my home town, one way is longer but easier, and the other is a bit stranger, though I miss it every-time. I plan out my route.
I am an agent in this rag tag band of adventurers and we practice to make sure that everything is ok. I am driving a fast car, something like a WRX STI, it's ripping up the tarmac.
I am near a chain of hotels and we discuss what to do now. We are developping a disguise to infiltrate that world again. Our mission wasn't that successful, so we need to try again.
Montreal is one of the most culturally diverse cities in Canada. Being in a french speaking province or state is also quite special. I have lived in Montreal for the last 4 years. Before that, I was living in Quebec City, the state capital, which is mostly french. I have had some incidents in Quebec City involving racism, but nothing too bad. Grade school was bad, because I came here from France. So on top of being a visible minority, I had a very pronounced french accent. I have never had any problems with any of my friends. With women, I did get the "Jungle Fever" vibe sometimes, because I was probably the closest that they have been to a black person. I can remember talks about the maudits immigrants voleurs de jobs [Ed. note: damn immigrant, stealer of jobs] around me from acquaintances. It was always added very quickly later on, after they realized what they had said, that I wasn't one of them, naturally.
Quebec culture is centered upon the conflict between English speakers and French speakers. Historically speaking, the Quebecois were not treated very well, and the sovereignty movement is a consequence of this. Sovereignty almost disappeared in 1995, when Parizeau, the former Premier of Quebec, accused the loss of the Separation Referendum on Ethnic votes. Funny, because most would consider me an Ethnic vote and I voted for sovereignty. Though it was a protestation vote, I didn't like politics that much back then. I am glad to see that this issue had gone under the carpet for the moment. I think Quebec should always be in Canada, to some degree. Outright separation is not viable, especially in an economic sense. Since most corporations in Quebec are still owned by English speakers, they would leave should Quebec separate. Housing and financial markets would crash, property values would stumble. Quebec would be a uni-lingual country, and that would be a problem for many of us. I can't imagine the other consequences of Quebec separating, but none of them are that great. I would think that a status somewhat similar to the states of the USA would be something that Quebec would like, however, Quebec will have large problems without the equalization payments of other provinces. The only provinces who would benefit from separation, would be Alberta and Ontario, but they wouldn't separate from Canada.
I am pretty sure some Quebecois pure-laine living in Montreal feel the need to be more racist than if they were in a homogenous society. Montreal is so multicultural, that they are constantly surrounded by not only English and French people, but by Filipino, Chinese, Indian, Haitian and more. It is a way for them to protect their cultural identity. If the society of Montreal were more homogeneously Caucasian, like Quebec City, I am sure racism would be less of an issue, since the need for discrimination against visible minorities is almost unnecessary, since they are not a threat. However, in Montreal, all these cultures living with each other and mingling makes a core group of Quebecois uncomfortable. Nothing is worse, when they see their culture diluted in their eyes, when Causasians mix with foreigners. In fact, I am sure some of the Quebecois pure-laine living in my condo development resent the fact that I live here, at age 30, when they are older and feel threatened by my presence. I have discussed this subject with a Filipino friend who lives here, and he has similar feelings towards this subject. It is such a paradox, because you would think that Montreal would be in general a bastion of tolerance, making cultures tolerate themselves in a better way. This is the case with most younger people, and I have the sense that in a few generations, this will be the general attitude. It is quite a novel idea, that multiculturism is actually polarizing racism in Montreal, but this is happening every day. How do these people deal with Quebecois like myself who have a Quebecois accent, swear like them but are in fact totally different in appearance? They discriminate and belittle.
In Big Brother news, In BBA Katie has been evicted. The surprise turn of events went against all odds. Odds being that Jamie was going to go. However, Katie was a goner, with a good portion of the vote. The housemates passed this week's task. Jamie is constantly looking in the mirror and playing with his hair. I think that he looks more in the mirror than Krystal, which is saying a lot.
Grace's eviction from Friday
It has been revealed that Susie was a stripper and has been accused of being a prostitute by her former husband. That would explain her presence in a music video by HIM where she strips completely down. Like I have said before, she has a lot in common with Lea, who is a porn actress. I have posted links or clips of both of these already, if you want more info, check out the big-brother category in the Memoirs.
I just noticed that WP is down starting 16:20 EST. Just came back at 16:40 EST. This is actually the 2nd time I have lost part of an article while I was spellchecking with WP. I will have to be more careful.
There is a large problem with the memediggers. It turns out, and I am not surprised by this, that 60% of digg's front page is controlled by 0.03% of users. Here is another post covering this fact.
memoirs on a rainy day 
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