This blog focused for a few years on Islam and Muslims in the West. I then stopped writing here, and focused all my work onNow, immigration, and non-Western immigrants have entered the fabric of our society so much so that they can pick and chose what they want. They clearly benefit from the economic and "intellectual" freedoms and opportunities (e.g. they don't have to fear the "thought police" and other societal regulators from which they fled in their countries of origin, and can use the tremendous wealth these countries have built over the centuries), but now we begin to realize that they have no intention of leaving those countries behind.
Reclaiming Beauty. Now, I feel we need to revisit this site, to show the slow, progressive, change in our landscape, and of course our society.Please read on to observe with me my observations.
Instead, they are forming their own pockets of societies, resembling as much as they can what they left behind, with language and culture as intact as possible, but within the open and welcoming arms of our Western lands.
Below are my first observations I'm posting here, although I have been posting on these issues both at Camera Lucida and Reclaiming Beauty to some extent.
Now I will dedicate this full blog to those issues.
We must know what we are up against.
 |
I was sitting drinking my coffee and going through my laptop, as these two men came and sat down with a cup of coffee each. They were there at least 1/2 hour with the same cup of coffee, and talking loudly, with gesticulations, in Cantonese.
The whole cafe was overpowered by their noisy discussion.
At one point, I turned around and watched them, to see if it would have any effect.
The man in my view was a much younger man, and it was his older companion that was doing most of the talking. The younger man would periodically break out into girlish giggles. It was clear that there was some hieracichal protocol being kept, and strongly.
After a long 1/ hour, they eventually left, holding on to their by now empty (surely) cups).
Besides the alienating, disturbing presence, how can they feel comfortalbe sitting there with a $1:00 cup of coffee each (at least the Starbucks would have been $2:00) for a good half hour?
The lovely C-Cafe, envisioned and designed by Western Canadians, is now a place for Toronto's inhabitants to enjoy its atmosphere.
As this continues, I can imagine the C-Cafe shutting down. In fact, they have cut down on their menu, including the wine and beer list (the wine was from the Niagara wineries), and closing earlier to benefit the City Hall's employees, which are now beginning to look more and more like this Chinese couple.
I saw the older man upstairs as I asked for some information (on maps and guides) in the administration office.
 |
He was standing by the Chinese woman's ledge. By the time I came closer to take a photograph, he had left. I tried to find out what this woman was doing, and I asked, carefully ("Can I not talk with her, over there? I am in a hurry!"), and found out that she was responsible for building permits for commercial businesses. It looks like another Chinese restaurant, or some kind of convenience store, where English communication will be difficult, and so most likely to serve Chinese clients.
I went back down, to walk through the City Hall, and to make it back out into the square, and was startled by these loud Chinese women, talking loudly and aggressively to each other.
I stopped, and just looked at them as they spoke, and then took out my camera, and took a photograph. I waited as they talked. One of them realized I was watching, and they silenced themselves. I went on my way.
 |