Sorry. I previously mentioned this. This is just an update on the Zombie apocalypse which started last year, really.
Sal and I went driving by the unit block Hastings street in Vancouver late one dark and stormy night – near midnight – last year. We were on our way home from somewhere and driving downtown was the straightest way home. What I saw that night shocked me. I witnessed what seemed like the initial ensemble of the Zombie invasionary strike force gathering in the shadows of the old, decrepit and vandalized three-story ex-BC Collateral pawn shop. It was a horror show.
In the dark, in the rain, about 100 or so street people looking stricken and diseased, stumbled to and fro going nowhere in particular on that special block of inner-city Hell. Most seemed to be wearing dark, wet hoodies. Or black plastic garbage bags. Some were lying in heaps on the ground. Others stared vacantly at the traffic going by. I have been to a lot of bad places on this planet and I have never seen anything that black, that bleak or that depressing. Not the bad section of San Salvadore, not the back-street ghettos of Hong Kong, not in the jungles of Belize or Thailand. Not even the Port Authority bus station in New York City. It was so bad, it was as if some kind of an alien malignancy had literately manifested in human form right before my eyes.
As reported last year, I simply put my foot down a little further on the accelerator and wondered what the hell the world was coming to as we sped from the scene of the slime.
Last night we went again for dinner near there. Favourite restaurant of a friend of mine. On the way in, we passed that same block. There was more light. It was not raining. It was not as late. But this time there were at least 200 people dressed in black and looking like the army of the dead. And again, I was shocked.
We went for dinner and, while there, I decided I would slowly drive past the block and video it – which we did. But WordPress won’t take such a big file so I will try to get it some other way (a link or something). This requires ‘next generation’ assistance.
To be fair, half the tragically damned had already vacated the shadows by then and so the street was not quite as dreadful as I expected this time around. In addition, there was a bit more street light and, upon closer examination, I saw some zombie-likes wearing some colour other than black. It was almost festive compared to my previous memory.
But the real surprise was in what they were really doing there. It was a flea market of sorts – emphasis on fleas and viruses and other vile contagions. These unfortunate but still extremely repulsive people were peddling their wares. Doing transactions. Making exchanges. Free enterprise was at work.
Admittedly, the value of the goods on display was several standards below what any normal person classifies as garbage if not medical waste or toxic and hazardous materials all amidst the ubiquitous used syringes and drugs and revolting human detritus of that kind of lifestyle. Bloomingdales, it was not! But it was clearly life-style shopping.
It was death-style shopping, actually.
It was still a massive horror show but it was last night revealed as a capitalist horror show of the lowest rung in society. I guess our government would see that in a positive light. The trickle-down effect at work even in the gutters and shadows of midnight in the ghetto. The myth of equal opportunity being maintained.
‘Midnight!’? Don’t kid yourself. Not this time. The pics were taken at 8:00 pm. By midnight, it gets really scary.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Yup ya got that right. It’s free enterprise in its rawest form. Let that scene serve as a lession in Capitalism. Let those working for slave wages have a peak into the inferno. Hell is here on Earth.
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Heaven and Hell are here on earth. My wife says, “You make your own hell.” And she is right. Those people may have not made their hell entirely on their own but they certainly played a major part in it. It is definitely NOT pretty down there.
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“Comfortably Numb”
Hello,
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Come on now
I hear you’re feeling down
Well, I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again
Relax
I’ll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?
Pink Floyd
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NOT anonymous – only SID writes like that…………Sid?
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Ahhh yes the Hastings ‘strip” after dark.
A wide open drug fest with sprinklings of theft sales going on.
A complete farce in the eyes of the law but with Chief Chu in charge nothing will happen. He has his nose so far up the butt of the politically correct idiots in charge of Vancouver. He wouldnt go for a pee before asking permission.
Lets face it, Mayor Gregor has more important things to think about, more bike lanes, urban farming, extramarital affairs, renovating a house for his soon to be ex-wife.
He’s busy guy!
Let the charities, food kitchens, volunteer needle exchanges, Salvation Army, and on and on and on ….deal with those pesky unfortunates.
We’ve got condos and casinos to build.
BC…The “Best Place on Earth” ( gag )
Vancouver, a world class shithole when your a junkie on the “Strip” tweeking for crack.
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I agree. Again. I am, it seems, a smidge more pinko than you but that aside, I can’t see turning a blind eye to what is clearly wrong either. That is not being politically correct; that is aiding and abetting. “For evil to be done, good men only have to do nothing.” WHAT should be done, of course, is something therapeutic and humane rather than jail but both are expensive so nothing will be done and evil will flourish. And – like you – I think a lot of what passes for pinko therapy is a waste of time. Ex-Kalay had it right: work therapy.
I think maybe the ghost town of Bralorne(?- just north of Pemberton- the one the overseas Chinese tycoon bought from the government) should have been ‘re-done’ as a therapy town. A half-way town. Crease Clinic north.
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Yeah, total agreement. I remember driving past an old “work release” farm with my parent back in the 60’s and when I asked my folks about it they explained how it worked.
Non violent prisoners, addicts working at menial jobs on a self sustaining farms to dry out and or learn how to actually get up and perform work on a regular basis.
But all that was closed by sucessive federal Liberal and Conservative govts through budget cuts and “tit for tat” funding cuts.
Somewhat like the Harper Tories virtually ignoring the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Canadian Flag Feb 15 because it was implemented by a Liberal govt.
Partisan politics at its most childish.
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Of one thing I am sure: you, me and some of my readers could do a lot better in some areas of public concern anyway. Gimme the Justice Ministry and watch how things change for the better!
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Nah, Nothing would change. The status quo is too entrenched.
Fire one incompetant ,lazy beaurocrat and two more pop up to replace it.
The entire government system needs a fiscal enema ie: make the most expensive part of the govt (govt employee pensions and benefits) pay for itself 100%. Let that cull the deadwood in govt.
There was a time when govt employees were paid less than the private sector and that was made up with their generous pensions and benefits.
Now the Boomers are retiring enmass creating a fiscal timebomb.
Its killing budgets everywhere. Detroit city has recieved bankruptcy protection and cut retired police, firemen ,etc. pensions by 30%. California State employees are next. Ontario Teachers pension fund is one of the oldest and richest and even it is now posting losses due to retirees living longer and fewer teacher/pensioner ratios.
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Therapy for those who want it. House them, feed them, and provide work. These measures will address some of the problems but not the mental health issues, nor the need that some government folks have for these public displays of human misery. Also there is a criminal element that preys up social misery that find it convenient for purposes of their work to have a pool of victims
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