The Soldier Who Came Home Alive by Dave Jaffe. Part Four.
In 1952 Lenny Soames went to Korea and came as a soldier to this war torn peninsula. He was shot at and fired back. He killed communist troops with his rifle and grenades. The killing disgusted him. "I can never forget the stuff I saw," this tough street fighter said. Once his army tour was over, Soames left the army and never went near it again.
"I have no time for military parades, medals or any of that stuff," he said. "After what I went through in Korea I won't go near war and armies." Yet though his time in the Canadian army embittered Soames, it had taught him some skills. He had learned how to kill and disable anyone with his bare hands. Once back in Toronto, he was soon on the move. He headed west to Vancouver and tried to get a job there as a longshoreman. When that failed , he shuffled for a while from job to job. Sometimes he worked as a bouncer in night clubs. This job had its dangers.
Drunken youth in night clubs sometimes attacked Soames in fights, seeing him as an easy target, since he was usually the shortest bouncer on the floor. They soon found out they'd made a mistake. Soames often made mincemeat of these foolhardy youngsters. He usually threw them onto the floor, and sometimes broke some of their bones.
Then Soames tired of this work. After his daughter was born, he took a job as a security guard at a local private golf club. "The people there are well-heeled and a little snooty," he said. "But it pays the rent." Lenny and his wife split up in the 1970's. Yet he got together with his daughter every weekend and always kept up with his support payments. Soames was one tough man but he was also a dutiful father who was kind to his daughter. In the 1980's he often met her at the Kingsgate Mall on East Broadway on Saturdays and listened to her as she told him about her schooling and other experiences.
"Soames was a tough guy," said someone who knew him from the old weight room at the Y.M.C.A. on Burrard Street. He surely was. He died in the early 21st century in Vancouver, a fighter to the end.
Friday 28 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe:Chapter 40, part three.
The Soldier Who Came Home Alive by Dave Jaffe. Part Three.
The Korean War was another horrible conflict in the Cold War between communists countries and capitalist ones. Yet it was in this war that Lenny Soames fought and killed. In Canada in the early 1950's he had no job, no money and he hungered for adventure. He saw a poster in a Toronto street urging young men to join the army. So he went to an army office and signed for the Canadian army.
Once at the army base at Pettawa in central Canada, he realized he'd made a mistake. The officers in the Canadian army demanded total obedience. Soames spent his days marching, polishing his shoes, making his bed and obeying all orders from above. Yet the officers saw in Soames the making of a real fighting man. Soon he was out on the firing range, learning how handle guns and mortars. He was also taught to kill with a bayonet and his bare hands.
The Korean War was another horrible conflict in the Cold War between communists countries and capitalist ones. Yet it was in this war that Lenny Soames fought and killed. In Canada in the early 1950's he had no job, no money and he hungered for adventure. He saw a poster in a Toronto street urging young men to join the army. So he went to an army office and signed for the Canadian army.
Once at the army base at Pettawa in central Canada, he realized he'd made a mistake. The officers in the Canadian army demanded total obedience. Soames spent his days marching, polishing his shoes, making his bed and obeying all orders from above. Yet the officers saw in Soames the making of a real fighting man. Soon he was out on the firing range, learning how handle guns and mortars. He was also taught to kill with a bayonet and his bare hands.
Thursday 27 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 40, part Two of 'The Soldier Who Cam Home Alive'.
The Soldier Who Came Home Alive. Part Two. by Dave Jaffe
The Korean War changed Lenny Soames' life. It started in 1950 when the North Korean dictator
Kim Il Sung launched an invasion of South Korea. South Korea was then ruled by a right wing dictator Syngman Rhee. For 50 years the Japanese had ruled the whole of Korea with an iron hand. Then in 1945 the Japanese invaders were defeated in the Second World War. The Japanese then vanished and the Great Powers took control of Korea. The Soviets backed Kim Il Sung who ruled the north. The U.S.-backed Syngman Rhee ran the south.
Both Rhee and Sung were tough dictators. Neither man gave a fig about human rights. Both threw their political opponents in prison and/or had them killed. Yet there was a key difference between these two strong men. Rhee had collaborated with the Japanese rulers of Korea. Sung had fought the Japanese. He also tilted some of his programs towards the workers and the poor.
In the late 1940's, Sung went to see Josef Stalin, the unchallenged communist ruler of the Soviet Union and most of Eastern Europe. Sung told he wanted to invade South Korea and unify the peninsula under his rule. "If you get kicked in the teeth," Stalin told Kim Il Sung, "I shall not lift a finger." If Sung ran into trouble, Stalin told him, China would help him and not the Soviet Union. Yet Stalin didn't disapprove of Sung's plans.
So on June 25, 1950 Sung launched an invasion of South Korea. The invasion took South Korea by surprise and North Korean forces soon gobbled up large parts of South Korea including the nation's capitol of Seoul. Yet then the Americans counter-attacked. Led by their famous general, Douglas MacArthur they entered the war . They landed troops at the waist of the peninsula near the 38th parallel.
The mostly American forces and their allies including Canadian soldiers pushed back the North Koreans and started to march north towards China. China led by Mao Tse Tung had just completed its communist revolution.. Mao did not want to get involved in she Korean War. He and his generals were planning to soon invade Taiwan and reunite all of China. The Chinese government warned the Americans to stop advancing on China. The U.S. ignored the warnings and allowed MacArthur to keep marching north. MacArthur said that he would help liberate China from communism.
In the just completed civil was in China the U.S. government had heavily backed the right wing Guomindang. When the Communist defeated the Guomindang it fled to Taiwan. Kim Il Sung pleaded for help from China and the Chinese government came through. "We will get the troops home by Christmas," MacArthur said in effect. The Chinese troops played havoc with that prediction.
In November 1950 Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River which was the border between North Korea and China. They inflicted a massive defeat on the Allied forces who then fled south. The war ended up at the 38th parallel. Below the 38th parallel, Syngman Rhee ruled the roost. Above the 38th parallel, Kim Il Sung held the power. Hostilities went on until 1953 when the war ended.
Korea was now a devastated land. "When the elephants clash only the grasshoppers get hurt," the Vietnamese used to say. Like Korea to its north, Vietnam was a small country sandwiched in between great powers. Vietnam was a grasshopper. China and the U.S. were the elephants. 1 million Koreans died in the war. So did 50,000 Americans, 300 Canadians and over 130,000 Chinese.
The Korean War changed Lenny Soames' life. It started in 1950 when the North Korean dictator
Kim Il Sung launched an invasion of South Korea. South Korea was then ruled by a right wing dictator Syngman Rhee. For 50 years the Japanese had ruled the whole of Korea with an iron hand. Then in 1945 the Japanese invaders were defeated in the Second World War. The Japanese then vanished and the Great Powers took control of Korea. The Soviets backed Kim Il Sung who ruled the north. The U.S.-backed Syngman Rhee ran the south.
Both Rhee and Sung were tough dictators. Neither man gave a fig about human rights. Both threw their political opponents in prison and/or had them killed. Yet there was a key difference between these two strong men. Rhee had collaborated with the Japanese rulers of Korea. Sung had fought the Japanese. He also tilted some of his programs towards the workers and the poor.
In the late 1940's, Sung went to see Josef Stalin, the unchallenged communist ruler of the Soviet Union and most of Eastern Europe. Sung told he wanted to invade South Korea and unify the peninsula under his rule. "If you get kicked in the teeth," Stalin told Kim Il Sung, "I shall not lift a finger." If Sung ran into trouble, Stalin told him, China would help him and not the Soviet Union. Yet Stalin didn't disapprove of Sung's plans.
So on June 25, 1950 Sung launched an invasion of South Korea. The invasion took South Korea by surprise and North Korean forces soon gobbled up large parts of South Korea including the nation's capitol of Seoul. Yet then the Americans counter-attacked. Led by their famous general, Douglas MacArthur they entered the war . They landed troops at the waist of the peninsula near the 38th parallel.
The mostly American forces and their allies including Canadian soldiers pushed back the North Koreans and started to march north towards China. China led by Mao Tse Tung had just completed its communist revolution.. Mao did not want to get involved in she Korean War. He and his generals were planning to soon invade Taiwan and reunite all of China. The Chinese government warned the Americans to stop advancing on China. The U.S. ignored the warnings and allowed MacArthur to keep marching north. MacArthur said that he would help liberate China from communism.
In the just completed civil was in China the U.S. government had heavily backed the right wing Guomindang. When the Communist defeated the Guomindang it fled to Taiwan. Kim Il Sung pleaded for help from China and the Chinese government came through. "We will get the troops home by Christmas," MacArthur said in effect. The Chinese troops played havoc with that prediction.
In November 1950 Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River which was the border between North Korea and China. They inflicted a massive defeat on the Allied forces who then fled south. The war ended up at the 38th parallel. Below the 38th parallel, Syngman Rhee ruled the roost. Above the 38th parallel, Kim Il Sung held the power. Hostilities went on until 1953 when the war ended.
Korea was now a devastated land. "When the elephants clash only the grasshoppers get hurt," the Vietnamese used to say. Like Korea to its north, Vietnam was a small country sandwiched in between great powers. Vietnam was a grasshopper. China and the U.S. were the elephants. 1 million Koreans died in the war. So did 50,000 Americans, 300 Canadians and over 130,000 Chinese.
Wednesday 26 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 40, part one: The Soldier Who Came Home Alive.
The Soldier Who Came Home Alive by Dave Jaffe. Part One.
On warm summer mornings in the late 1960"s, Lenny Soames would often come to Vancouver's English Bay. He came with his attractive dark haired wife and their baby girl. As the day heated up, Lenny would lie on a blanket in the sand gazing out to sea. Then when the clock hit midday, he would get up and run for half an hour or so around the sea wall or jog into Stanley Park.
When his run was finished, he would come back to lie beside his wife and child. "It's a lovely day," this very short, incredibly muscular man would often say.
His wife Aviva often didn't always agree. Lenny Soames was often out of work and then the whole Soames family would end up at the welfare office. Mrs. Soames didn't like going down to the welfare office at all. "They ask you all sorts of questions," this 20's something woman would complain. "And then they give you a pittance to live on. Lenny doesn't mind living on welfare but I hate it."
It keeps us alive," Lenny Soames would say." It'll do until I find a job."
"You can't keep any job you get,' his wife would say. "That's your trouble." Then the two of them would end up squabbling. To be fair to Lenny Soames, once his daughter came along, he did stop losing or leaving one job after another. Still, Aviva couldn't forget the times he just got up and quit a job.
Lenny Soames met Aviva Rapaport on a dance floor in Vancouver. He was one tough guy who grew up in the streets of Toronto. "A sanctimonious icebox," the visual artist and writer Wyndham Lewis once called Toronto. Others referred to it as "Hogtown'. Regardless of its nicknames, or the slighting references to it, Toronto then and now was and is Canada's largest city. It was where the big banks and large industrial firms had their head offices. For a times it was also home to fanatical Irish Canadian Protestants who loathed Catholics, especially the ones in Quebec.
"I hated it there," Lenny Soames would say in his later life. His father was a warehouseman who worked hard and drank hard. His mother was a no-nonsense housewife who had four children to look after on her husband's modest wages. The family lived not far from where Morley Callaghan set his Toronto novels. Lenny Soames dropped out of school at the age of 15. "Never did me any good," he said about his school days. Like many others who didn't like the education business, he forgot that it was in schools where teachers taught him how to read, write and do some mathematics.
Now he was on the loose, a tough sometimes wild teenager who may have been heading for jail. Yet then up popped the Korean War. It changed his life.
On warm summer mornings in the late 1960"s, Lenny Soames would often come to Vancouver's English Bay. He came with his attractive dark haired wife and their baby girl. As the day heated up, Lenny would lie on a blanket in the sand gazing out to sea. Then when the clock hit midday, he would get up and run for half an hour or so around the sea wall or jog into Stanley Park.
When his run was finished, he would come back to lie beside his wife and child. "It's a lovely day," this very short, incredibly muscular man would often say.
His wife Aviva often didn't always agree. Lenny Soames was often out of work and then the whole Soames family would end up at the welfare office. Mrs. Soames didn't like going down to the welfare office at all. "They ask you all sorts of questions," this 20's something woman would complain. "And then they give you a pittance to live on. Lenny doesn't mind living on welfare but I hate it."
It keeps us alive," Lenny Soames would say." It'll do until I find a job."
"You can't keep any job you get,' his wife would say. "That's your trouble." Then the two of them would end up squabbling. To be fair to Lenny Soames, once his daughter came along, he did stop losing or leaving one job after another. Still, Aviva couldn't forget the times he just got up and quit a job.
Lenny Soames met Aviva Rapaport on a dance floor in Vancouver. He was one tough guy who grew up in the streets of Toronto. "A sanctimonious icebox," the visual artist and writer Wyndham Lewis once called Toronto. Others referred to it as "Hogtown'. Regardless of its nicknames, or the slighting references to it, Toronto then and now was and is Canada's largest city. It was where the big banks and large industrial firms had their head offices. For a times it was also home to fanatical Irish Canadian Protestants who loathed Catholics, especially the ones in Quebec.
"I hated it there," Lenny Soames would say in his later life. His father was a warehouseman who worked hard and drank hard. His mother was a no-nonsense housewife who had four children to look after on her husband's modest wages. The family lived not far from where Morley Callaghan set his Toronto novels. Lenny Soames dropped out of school at the age of 15. "Never did me any good," he said about his school days. Like many others who didn't like the education business, he forgot that it was in schools where teachers taught him how to read, write and do some mathematics.
Now he was on the loose, a tough sometimes wild teenager who may have been heading for jail. Yet then up popped the Korean War. It changed his life.
Wednesday 19 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: THe Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 39, Part Three; The Lady Who Was A Paranoid.
The Lady Was A Paranoid: Part Three by Dave Jaffe.
In the 1970's, Irene went back to school. She took education courses and learned how to be a teacher's aide in a primary school. She ended up working in a school on Vancouver's east side. These were the happiest days of Irene's life. She lived in her own house, earned a decent wage and took many journeys across North America with Arthur.
Yet in the late 1980's Arthur became ill and started to become frail. Soon he retired from his delivery job and Irene retired to as she took care of her ailing husband. Arthur was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in the early 1990's. Irene was now alone. Arthur's death hit her hard. Of course, Irene remained in touch with her two sisters and two brothers, one of whom died. Yet she resented her family.
"I helped raise them," she said. "Yet they never thanked me." Whether this was true or not, Irene disliked some of her nieces and nephews too. They would ask Irene to come to their homes and see their children. Then they'd go out and leave her to take care of the kids. "They'd come back after a few hours and wouldn't pay me any money for babysitting their children," Irene said.
Irene Wong ended up focusing on the way she'd been used and abused during her lifetime. These feelings soon blew up into full scale paranoia. She directed this paranoia at one of her sisters and her last remaining brother. "They want me dead," she told people. Yet this wasn't true.
Irene had no time for politics. She remembered too many white politicians who had denounced the Chinese in the 1930's and 1940's. Also she faced racism, she said. One Jewish man told her that in every month in his adult life, someone said or did something against Jews. Irene smiled. "I go out every day," she said, "and I know that someone will put me down just for being Chinese."
Wong's family feared any people getting too close to their sister. They drove away an ageing white man who befriended Irene. "They think you want my house," she said to the man who denied this. he left her life and never came near her again. In her early 80's, Irene's sisters and brother put her in a long term care place. She shared a small room with a woman in her 90's who grew up in the smelter town of Trail. Irene helped take care of this woman.
Irene Wong died in the 21st century, probably in 2015. Her small house was later torn down to make way for a much bigger house. The new owners paid over two million dollars for this house. In this area there are many people of Chinese origin. And the only people who come around the area wanting home owners to leave their residences are doing this not because they dislike Asian Canadians. They just want to buy the house and maybe sell it for a higher price.
In the 1970's, Irene went back to school. She took education courses and learned how to be a teacher's aide in a primary school. She ended up working in a school on Vancouver's east side. These were the happiest days of Irene's life. She lived in her own house, earned a decent wage and took many journeys across North America with Arthur.
Yet in the late 1980's Arthur became ill and started to become frail. Soon he retired from his delivery job and Irene retired to as she took care of her ailing husband. Arthur was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in the early 1990's. Irene was now alone. Arthur's death hit her hard. Of course, Irene remained in touch with her two sisters and two brothers, one of whom died. Yet she resented her family.
"I helped raise them," she said. "Yet they never thanked me." Whether this was true or not, Irene disliked some of her nieces and nephews too. They would ask Irene to come to their homes and see their children. Then they'd go out and leave her to take care of the kids. "They'd come back after a few hours and wouldn't pay me any money for babysitting their children," Irene said.
Irene Wong ended up focusing on the way she'd been used and abused during her lifetime. These feelings soon blew up into full scale paranoia. She directed this paranoia at one of her sisters and her last remaining brother. "They want me dead," she told people. Yet this wasn't true.
Irene had no time for politics. She remembered too many white politicians who had denounced the Chinese in the 1930's and 1940's. Also she faced racism, she said. One Jewish man told her that in every month in his adult life, someone said or did something against Jews. Irene smiled. "I go out every day," she said, "and I know that someone will put me down just for being Chinese."
Wong's family feared any people getting too close to their sister. They drove away an ageing white man who befriended Irene. "They think you want my house," she said to the man who denied this. he left her life and never came near her again. In her early 80's, Irene's sisters and brother put her in a long term care place. She shared a small room with a woman in her 90's who grew up in the smelter town of Trail. Irene helped take care of this woman.
Irene Wong died in the 21st century, probably in 2015. Her small house was later torn down to make way for a much bigger house. The new owners paid over two million dollars for this house. In this area there are many people of Chinese origin. And the only people who come around the area wanting home owners to leave their residences are doing this not because they dislike Asian Canadians. They just want to buy the house and maybe sell it for a higher price.
Tuesday 18 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe: Chapter 39, Part Two.
The Lady was A Paranoid. Part Two by Dave Jaffe.
Irene Wang, born Irene Chow was the eldest of the Chow's five children. Another sister, older than Irene, died in childhood. So Irene had to take care of her younger siblings. She often cooked the meager night time meals of rice and cabbage. She helped her mother pack their tiny piles of possession as the Chow family scuttled from one low rent apartment to another. She even took her younger siblings to school to register them on their first day of public education.
"I was the head of my family," Chow said. "There was no one else to take care of us all, except for my mother and she was always working in some laundry or restaurant." At times Irene Chow had to confront and deal with creditors who came around to get their bills paid. When she was fourteen Chow dropped out of an east end high school, where she'd faced racism. She ended up working alongside her mother in a laundry, washing and cleaning other women's clothes.
In world war two, some better paid jobs at lasts opened up to the Chinese. Yet even now, Chinese people had to be careful. Many whites still thought that they were Japanese. And Japan was now at war with Canada. At the start of the war with Japan in the early 1940's, Japanese-Canadians were rounded up and herded into camps in south-eastern B.C. Normie Kwong, the star Edmonton Eskimos' 1950's football player used to walk to school in the 1940's, with a sign pinned to his back saying,"I am Chinese, not Japanese.
Irene Wong said, "Kwong was clever. Many people hated us back then and I'm sure they wanted to put us Chinese in camps too." At war's end in 1945 Irene took a cooking course and got a job in a Chinese restaurant. Here she met Arthur Wong, a man who delivered fresh fruit and vegetables to restaurants, including the one where Irene worked. Yet even now, Chinese people had to be careful. The Korean War erupted in the 1950's, and Chinese soldiers from the Chinese army and Canadians fought each other on the Korean peninsula. Once again anti-Chinese hostility surfaced in Canada.
Anyway Arthur and Irene got married in the early 1950's and started to save money. "We must buy a house," Arthur said and that became the couple's long term goal. For Irene found out that she couldn't have children and so she kept on working.
By the mid-1960's, the pair had saved enough money to put a big down payment on a house. They bought a small place on Vancouver's west side, not far from city hall. Total price of the home? $10,000. Arthur gave the old owner $6,000 and took out a mortgage to cover the rest of the cost. Yet even here white racism reared its ugly head. The day after, a happy Irene and Arthur moved into their new home a white male knocked on their door. He soon explained why he'd come. "I''ll give you $1,000 more than you paid for this place if you'll move out of here as soon as possible," he said.
Like most of the white neighbours, he didn't want any Chinese in the neighbourhood. "Get lost," Arthur told the man who then vanished. No more white people asked them to move again, but most whites didn't come near them again either.
Irene Wang, born Irene Chow was the eldest of the Chow's five children. Another sister, older than Irene, died in childhood. So Irene had to take care of her younger siblings. She often cooked the meager night time meals of rice and cabbage. She helped her mother pack their tiny piles of possession as the Chow family scuttled from one low rent apartment to another. She even took her younger siblings to school to register them on their first day of public education.
"I was the head of my family," Chow said. "There was no one else to take care of us all, except for my mother and she was always working in some laundry or restaurant." At times Irene Chow had to confront and deal with creditors who came around to get their bills paid. When she was fourteen Chow dropped out of an east end high school, where she'd faced racism. She ended up working alongside her mother in a laundry, washing and cleaning other women's clothes.
In world war two, some better paid jobs at lasts opened up to the Chinese. Yet even now, Chinese people had to be careful. Many whites still thought that they were Japanese. And Japan was now at war with Canada. At the start of the war with Japan in the early 1940's, Japanese-Canadians were rounded up and herded into camps in south-eastern B.C. Normie Kwong, the star Edmonton Eskimos' 1950's football player used to walk to school in the 1940's, with a sign pinned to his back saying,"I am Chinese, not Japanese.
Irene Wong said, "Kwong was clever. Many people hated us back then and I'm sure they wanted to put us Chinese in camps too." At war's end in 1945 Irene took a cooking course and got a job in a Chinese restaurant. Here she met Arthur Wong, a man who delivered fresh fruit and vegetables to restaurants, including the one where Irene worked. Yet even now, Chinese people had to be careful. The Korean War erupted in the 1950's, and Chinese soldiers from the Chinese army and Canadians fought each other on the Korean peninsula. Once again anti-Chinese hostility surfaced in Canada.
Anyway Arthur and Irene got married in the early 1950's and started to save money. "We must buy a house," Arthur said and that became the couple's long term goal. For Irene found out that she couldn't have children and so she kept on working.
By the mid-1960's, the pair had saved enough money to put a big down payment on a house. They bought a small place on Vancouver's west side, not far from city hall. Total price of the home? $10,000. Arthur gave the old owner $6,000 and took out a mortgage to cover the rest of the cost. Yet even here white racism reared its ugly head. The day after, a happy Irene and Arthur moved into their new home a white male knocked on their door. He soon explained why he'd come. "I''ll give you $1,000 more than you paid for this place if you'll move out of here as soon as possible," he said.
Like most of the white neighbours, he didn't want any Chinese in the neighbourhood. "Get lost," Arthur told the man who then vanished. No more white people asked them to move again, but most whites didn't come near them again either.
Monday 17 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadians; by Dave Jaffe: Chapter 39, Part One
Chapter 39: The Lady Who Was Paranoid. Part One
Suppose you met Irene Wang just before the year 2000. You'd see a short, thin 70 something Chinese Canadian woman who walked briskly and seemed content. Yet then when you probed a little further, her problems or obsessions would pop up. "My brother and sister, " this long time resident of Vancouver would say, "want me dead. They want to kill me and take my house."
A man who met her in 1999 simply replied, "Irene, they don't want you dead. They just want your house after you die. They're not going to kill you, believe me." No, Wong would insist. Her brother and sister , the older ones any way - for she had two of each - wanted to kill her. They also were stealing money from her right now. Though how this was happening, she couldn't really say, since as she admitted, "I don't have much money at all."
Irene didn't start off as a paranoid. She was born in Vancouver in the 1920's to a Chinese couple. The father, Irene 's father whose last name was Chow, disappeared after he and her mother had produced six children. After he left, the Chow family was really poor. And they were Chinese or as people used to call Chinese back then, they were 'Oriental"
Chinese people came to British Columbia in the 1850's. Yet they were not welcome there. "Hostility towards the Chinese began to emerge among non-union workers during the late 1860"," writes George Woodcock in his history of B.C.. By the 1880's, more Chinese immigrants arrived. Then anti-Chinese feelings really heated up. Anti-Asian sentiment soon targeted not only the Chinese but also the new Japanese and Indian immigrants. Anti-Asian riots swept Vancouver in the early 20th century. Most unions were totally hostile to Asian newcomers. One exception to this sad fact, was the International Workers of the World, or the 'Wobblies' as they were called.
New racist anti-Asian laws were soon enacted in Ottawa and Victoria where the provincial government now sat. Chinese newcomers faced massive so-called 'head taxes' which were designed to stop any Chinese immigrants from coming to Canada. By the 1920's, few Chinese or other Asian peoples came to B.C. or Canada. Most Chinese people lived in small Chinatowns. Few of them ventured out to live elsewhere since most laws forbade Asian buyers in Caucasian neighbourhooods. Nor could any Asian peoples change the racist set-up they faced. They weren't even allowed to vote in most Canadian elections until the late 1940's.
Most of the time they were a powerless minority. Chinese men and women worked mostly in market gardens, laundry shops, and restaurants. Some were servants in white people's homes. Chinese women toiled away in lousy jobs with poor pay. Irene Wong grew up in tough times that made the lives of Chinese people even worse In the 1930's the Great Depression swept across the world. It hit B.C. really hard. Mines closed, sawmills shut down and owners shuttered their fishing plants or slashed the wages of their workers.
Many years later, Irene Wong had a bet with a Caucasian man who had also been poor in his youth. "I bet my family moved more times than yours did, because we couldn't pay the rent," she said. It was no contest. Irene won the bet hands down.
Suppose you met Irene Wang just before the year 2000. You'd see a short, thin 70 something Chinese Canadian woman who walked briskly and seemed content. Yet then when you probed a little further, her problems or obsessions would pop up. "My brother and sister, " this long time resident of Vancouver would say, "want me dead. They want to kill me and take my house."
A man who met her in 1999 simply replied, "Irene, they don't want you dead. They just want your house after you die. They're not going to kill you, believe me." No, Wong would insist. Her brother and sister , the older ones any way - for she had two of each - wanted to kill her. They also were stealing money from her right now. Though how this was happening, she couldn't really say, since as she admitted, "I don't have much money at all."
Irene didn't start off as a paranoid. She was born in Vancouver in the 1920's to a Chinese couple. The father, Irene 's father whose last name was Chow, disappeared after he and her mother had produced six children. After he left, the Chow family was really poor. And they were Chinese or as people used to call Chinese back then, they were 'Oriental"
Chinese people came to British Columbia in the 1850's. Yet they were not welcome there. "Hostility towards the Chinese began to emerge among non-union workers during the late 1860"," writes George Woodcock in his history of B.C.. By the 1880's, more Chinese immigrants arrived. Then anti-Chinese feelings really heated up. Anti-Asian sentiment soon targeted not only the Chinese but also the new Japanese and Indian immigrants. Anti-Asian riots swept Vancouver in the early 20th century. Most unions were totally hostile to Asian newcomers. One exception to this sad fact, was the International Workers of the World, or the 'Wobblies' as they were called.
New racist anti-Asian laws were soon enacted in Ottawa and Victoria where the provincial government now sat. Chinese newcomers faced massive so-called 'head taxes' which were designed to stop any Chinese immigrants from coming to Canada. By the 1920's, few Chinese or other Asian peoples came to B.C. or Canada. Most Chinese people lived in small Chinatowns. Few of them ventured out to live elsewhere since most laws forbade Asian buyers in Caucasian neighbourhooods. Nor could any Asian peoples change the racist set-up they faced. They weren't even allowed to vote in most Canadian elections until the late 1940's.
Most of the time they were a powerless minority. Chinese men and women worked mostly in market gardens, laundry shops, and restaurants. Some were servants in white people's homes. Chinese women toiled away in lousy jobs with poor pay. Irene Wong grew up in tough times that made the lives of Chinese people even worse In the 1930's the Great Depression swept across the world. It hit B.C. really hard. Mines closed, sawmills shut down and owners shuttered their fishing plants or slashed the wages of their workers.
Many years later, Irene Wong had a bet with a Caucasian man who had also been poor in his youth. "I bet my family moved more times than yours did, because we couldn't pay the rent," she said. It was no contest. Irene won the bet hands down.
Tuesday 11 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Cnadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 38, Part Three of 'Startin the Star'.
Startin the Star by Dave Jaffe. Part Three.
Monica Startin was a conservative before she started work as a journalist. Her career in t.v. just confirmed her politics. At one point on the job, she danced with the very right wing Social Credit premier of B.C. People in the New Democratic Party then accused her of supporting the Social Credit Party in her reporting. "Not at all," Startin said. "The premier asked me to dance with him and I did. That's all there was to it."
Like many professional women, Startin faced pressures and opportunities. She met a wealthy man and married him. They bought a house on Vancouver's north shore and then had a son. together. This put Startin out of action for quite a few months. She hired a Filipino nanny to take care of her son. After about a year's absence she returned to work and was once again a regular face on the news hour.
Sometimes the pressures of journalism got to her. There were the constant deadlines that had to be met on time. Then there were the experts and sources that were sometimes hard to get hold of for a story. Then there was the rain that she often had to stand in for hours while doing a story out of doors.
And then there were times when the work day stretched way beyond eight hours.
Yet in the end she survived the perils of t.v. journalism and thrived. Sometimes untrue rumours swirled around her as often happens to people in the limelight. "She took cocaine at times," one hairdresser said about her. "I saw her at one party and I'm sure she was on coke. She looked really wasted." Yet when challenged to repeat this story in public, the man later retracted his statement.
After years of being a reporter, Startin ended up being a well paid anchor on another t.v. station. Yet this phase of her life didn't last too long. She was let go along with the male co-anchor. "They needed a younger pair," one observer pointed out. Still, she remained a big name after her retirement from t.v. She got invited to plenty of charity events and parties. She also ended up advising conservative politicians on how to use television to get elected and stay in power.
"She was a conservative," one former co-worker said about her. "No doubt about that.Yet she was also a very good journalist."
Monica Startin was a conservative before she started work as a journalist. Her career in t.v. just confirmed her politics. At one point on the job, she danced with the very right wing Social Credit premier of B.C. People in the New Democratic Party then accused her of supporting the Social Credit Party in her reporting. "Not at all," Startin said. "The premier asked me to dance with him and I did. That's all there was to it."
Like many professional women, Startin faced pressures and opportunities. She met a wealthy man and married him. They bought a house on Vancouver's north shore and then had a son. together. This put Startin out of action for quite a few months. She hired a Filipino nanny to take care of her son. After about a year's absence she returned to work and was once again a regular face on the news hour.
Sometimes the pressures of journalism got to her. There were the constant deadlines that had to be met on time. Then there were the experts and sources that were sometimes hard to get hold of for a story. Then there was the rain that she often had to stand in for hours while doing a story out of doors.
And then there were times when the work day stretched way beyond eight hours.
Yet in the end she survived the perils of t.v. journalism and thrived. Sometimes untrue rumours swirled around her as often happens to people in the limelight. "She took cocaine at times," one hairdresser said about her. "I saw her at one party and I'm sure she was on coke. She looked really wasted." Yet when challenged to repeat this story in public, the man later retracted his statement.
After years of being a reporter, Startin ended up being a well paid anchor on another t.v. station. Yet this phase of her life didn't last too long. She was let go along with the male co-anchor. "They needed a younger pair," one observer pointed out. Still, she remained a big name after her retirement from t.v. She got invited to plenty of charity events and parties. She also ended up advising conservative politicians on how to use television to get elected and stay in power.
"She was a conservative," one former co-worker said about her. "No doubt about that.Yet she was also a very good journalist."
Monday 10 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 38, Part Two of Startin the Star.
Startin the Star. Part Two by Dave Jaffe.
Monica Startin and her boyfriend came to Vancouver, B.C. together. Yet they soon went their separate ways. Monica became interested in journalism. She enrolled in a journalism course at a local community college. After graduating from the course, she ended up reporting for a radio station. Startin didn't spend much time worrying about feminism. Yet this new movement opened doors for her and many other women.
"I think she was the first female radio reporter in B.C.," one of her former workmates said. "And she was good."
The radio station was soon merged with another broadcasting company. The new company needed broadcasters, reporters and technicians to set up a modern television station and television newscasts. Soon Startin made the switch to television. She was hired to be a reporter on the evening six o'clock news hour program. "Television is the most conservative of all media," the very conservative journalist and cultural critic Robert Fulford once wrote. Startin was now working for a very conservative t.v. station.
The station's politics didn't bother Startin. Her parents both voted for the Republican party in the United States. "I've got no time for the Democrats or Democratic presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson," Startin's father once said. "These people just didn't understand the needs of business people." Startin readily bought in to her parents' politics and so had no problem with the right wing slant of the t.v. station's news.
Startin had quickly learned through experience and the courses she'd taken that news had one of three main ingredients namely sex, violence or money. If you could combine these three parts then the news story had even more appeal to viewers. At first, she was assigned to cover crime stories and she did her job well. Though sometimes the men whose crimes she covered, did scare her. She also developed contacts and sources to back up her stories. For in the t.v. station she was working for, the news director insisted that every news story had to be backed up or include three talking heads who were experts or sources.
Then the news director who was a gruff tough English-born journalist switched Startin over to cover the political scene. Startin may or not have been told to "Stick it to the N.D.P. and the unions." Yet that's what she did. She once went into a meeting of the BC. Teachers Federation and asked some of the teachers there if they supported the union in its conflict with the ruling Social Credit Party.
"Why are you causing us problems here?" the head of the B.C.T.F asked her in the room. While Startin's cameraman filmed all this, Startin coolly replied, "I'm just doing my job."
Monica Startin and her boyfriend came to Vancouver, B.C. together. Yet they soon went their separate ways. Monica became interested in journalism. She enrolled in a journalism course at a local community college. After graduating from the course, she ended up reporting for a radio station. Startin didn't spend much time worrying about feminism. Yet this new movement opened doors for her and many other women.
"I think she was the first female radio reporter in B.C.," one of her former workmates said. "And she was good."
The radio station was soon merged with another broadcasting company. The new company needed broadcasters, reporters and technicians to set up a modern television station and television newscasts. Soon Startin made the switch to television. She was hired to be a reporter on the evening six o'clock news hour program. "Television is the most conservative of all media," the very conservative journalist and cultural critic Robert Fulford once wrote. Startin was now working for a very conservative t.v. station.
The station's politics didn't bother Startin. Her parents both voted for the Republican party in the United States. "I've got no time for the Democrats or Democratic presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson," Startin's father once said. "These people just didn't understand the needs of business people." Startin readily bought in to her parents' politics and so had no problem with the right wing slant of the t.v. station's news.
Startin had quickly learned through experience and the courses she'd taken that news had one of three main ingredients namely sex, violence or money. If you could combine these three parts then the news story had even more appeal to viewers. At first, she was assigned to cover crime stories and she did her job well. Though sometimes the men whose crimes she covered, did scare her. She also developed contacts and sources to back up her stories. For in the t.v. station she was working for, the news director insisted that every news story had to be backed up or include three talking heads who were experts or sources.
Then the news director who was a gruff tough English-born journalist switched Startin over to cover the political scene. Startin may or not have been told to "Stick it to the N.D.P. and the unions." Yet that's what she did. She once went into a meeting of the BC. Teachers Federation and asked some of the teachers there if they supported the union in its conflict with the ruling Social Credit Party.
"Why are you causing us problems here?" the head of the B.C.T.F asked her in the room. While Startin's cameraman filmed all this, Startin coolly replied, "I'm just doing my job."
Saturday 8 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 38, Part One. Startin the Media Star.
Startin the Star. Chapter 38. Part One.
This is not a true story. Yet parts of it could have happened Startin the Star.
When Monica Startin walked down the street, men still looked at her. So did many women.
It wasn't only that Startin was still an attractive woman, even in her mid-fifties. Later they would ask themselves, "Wasn't she on television that woman? I'm sure I saw her on t.v. "
Indeed Monica Startin had been on television and on the radio. Like many British Columbians she came from elsewhere. She grew up in Winnetka, an affluent suburb of Chicago in Illinois. Startin went to private Catholic schools run by nuns. In summertime she played and lived in camps that catered to the children of the rich. "I have good memories of the Upper Michigan peninsula." she told her friends in Vancouver. "It was a lovely place to spend a summer." That's where Startin went to summer camp.
Of course, Startin didn't worry about the other side of Midwest America. Rough industrial towns like Gary, Indiana, and Hamtramk in Michigan or the tough poor high rise apartments on the South Side of Chicago didn't fly across her radar screen. She lived in a nice big house with one brother and an older sister. Her mother, a former nurse, helped by a maid, kept their ten room house spotlessly clean and neat. Monica's father, Ralph took the train downtown to work five days a week
in Chicago.
Chicago," said its famous poet, Carl Sandburg "is the city of big shoulders." In other words it had its rough side. A.J. Liebling once called Chicago, "The most completely corrupt city in America." When Monica was young, Mayor Richard Daley' political machine ruled the roost. And when writer and broadcaster Studs Terkel once told an Italian in Italy that he came from Chicago, the man said, "Bang, bang. Bang, bang." Chicago then as now had its share of violent gangs.
Monica's father didn't concern himself with such things. A big man who favoured dark three piece suits, he toiled away in a high rise skyscraper. He made good money in private business and made sure that his family was well-provided for. After high school, Monica went to Michigan State University in Ann Arbor. Michigan was nearly next door to Illinois. Both states bordered on Indiana. Illionois sat just to the west of Indiana. Michigan sat to Indiana's east. Startin wanted to put a little distance between herself and her family, but not too big a distance. For she was a bit of a rebel, even though as a teenager she'd entered beauty contests and won quite a few prizes.
Startin had long brown hair, big brown eyes and near perfect features.
She came to university in the early 1970's. American campuses were starting to cool off from the political heat of the previous five years. Yet Monica was still caught up in the now fading rebelliousness of the recent past. She wanted to see other parts of her country though as a child and adolescent she had travelled with her parents quite a bit. She and her new partner Donald bought a VW van and travelled across the U.S. For the first time in their lives they saw the waving wheat fields of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. They thrilled to see the mountains of Colorado and sweated in the broiling deserts of Arizona.
Then they made a right turn, headed north and ended up in Vancouver, British Columbia. "Mum, it doesn't snow here all the time," Startin told her mother Elizabeth over the phone. "It just rains here all the time." Like many Americans, Elizabeth saw Canada as 'The Great White North' and was glad to know that Monica and Donald didn't have to battle snowstorms as Chicago residents sometimes did.
This is not a true story. Yet parts of it could have happened Startin the Star.
When Monica Startin walked down the street, men still looked at her. So did many women.
It wasn't only that Startin was still an attractive woman, even in her mid-fifties. Later they would ask themselves, "Wasn't she on television that woman? I'm sure I saw her on t.v. "
Indeed Monica Startin had been on television and on the radio. Like many British Columbians she came from elsewhere. She grew up in Winnetka, an affluent suburb of Chicago in Illinois. Startin went to private Catholic schools run by nuns. In summertime she played and lived in camps that catered to the children of the rich. "I have good memories of the Upper Michigan peninsula." she told her friends in Vancouver. "It was a lovely place to spend a summer." That's where Startin went to summer camp.
Of course, Startin didn't worry about the other side of Midwest America. Rough industrial towns like Gary, Indiana, and Hamtramk in Michigan or the tough poor high rise apartments on the South Side of Chicago didn't fly across her radar screen. She lived in a nice big house with one brother and an older sister. Her mother, a former nurse, helped by a maid, kept their ten room house spotlessly clean and neat. Monica's father, Ralph took the train downtown to work five days a week
in Chicago.
Chicago," said its famous poet, Carl Sandburg "is the city of big shoulders." In other words it had its rough side. A.J. Liebling once called Chicago, "The most completely corrupt city in America." When Monica was young, Mayor Richard Daley' political machine ruled the roost. And when writer and broadcaster Studs Terkel once told an Italian in Italy that he came from Chicago, the man said, "Bang, bang. Bang, bang." Chicago then as now had its share of violent gangs.
Monica's father didn't concern himself with such things. A big man who favoured dark three piece suits, he toiled away in a high rise skyscraper. He made good money in private business and made sure that his family was well-provided for. After high school, Monica went to Michigan State University in Ann Arbor. Michigan was nearly next door to Illinois. Both states bordered on Indiana. Illionois sat just to the west of Indiana. Michigan sat to Indiana's east. Startin wanted to put a little distance between herself and her family, but not too big a distance. For she was a bit of a rebel, even though as a teenager she'd entered beauty contests and won quite a few prizes.
Startin had long brown hair, big brown eyes and near perfect features.
She came to university in the early 1970's. American campuses were starting to cool off from the political heat of the previous five years. Yet Monica was still caught up in the now fading rebelliousness of the recent past. She wanted to see other parts of her country though as a child and adolescent she had travelled with her parents quite a bit. She and her new partner Donald bought a VW van and travelled across the U.S. For the first time in their lives they saw the waving wheat fields of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. They thrilled to see the mountains of Colorado and sweated in the broiling deserts of Arizona.
Then they made a right turn, headed north and ended up in Vancouver, British Columbia. "Mum, it doesn't snow here all the time," Startin told her mother Elizabeth over the phone. "It just rains here all the time." Like many Americans, Elizabeth saw Canada as 'The Great White North' and was glad to know that Monica and Donald didn't have to battle snowstorms as Chicago residents sometimes did.
Tuesday 4 July 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 37. Part Three.
The Anthropologist Who Sided With the Government by Dave Jaffe
Stanley Whitehead didn't get off scot free after giving evidence against some land claims by a First Nations group.
He helped a man who had taken over $3,000 from a woman who he'd known. And this man wouldn't repay the money he owed.
The woman who'd been shafted contacted Whitehead's employer after Whitehead gave the man a written character reference. Whitehead nearly lost his job. "You bitch!" Whitehead told the woman over the phone.
"Well, you shouldn't have helped that man," the woman replied. "He's a complete crook." The woman who may have had a First Nations ancestor in her family, didn't forget Whitehead's testimony that hurt a First Nations' land claim.
Yet this was the only time Whitehead's politics hurt him. He retired from work as a contented man. This divorced father of one daughter had used his powerful intellect to win his way into the world of anthropology. Yet like many other academics, he supported the status quo and never came out to stand beside citizens in revolt. He worked against the rebels of this world and not for them.
Stanley Whitehead didn't get off scot free after giving evidence against some land claims by a First Nations group.
He helped a man who had taken over $3,000 from a woman who he'd known. And this man wouldn't repay the money he owed.
The woman who'd been shafted contacted Whitehead's employer after Whitehead gave the man a written character reference. Whitehead nearly lost his job. "You bitch!" Whitehead told the woman over the phone.
"Well, you shouldn't have helped that man," the woman replied. "He's a complete crook." The woman who may have had a First Nations ancestor in her family, didn't forget Whitehead's testimony that hurt a First Nations' land claim.
Yet this was the only time Whitehead's politics hurt him. He retired from work as a contented man. This divorced father of one daughter had used his powerful intellect to win his way into the world of anthropology. Yet like many other academics, he supported the status quo and never came out to stand beside citizens in revolt. He worked against the rebels of this world and not for them.
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