Religion and Ethnicity? What of it?

Events of the past few weeks have caused me a crisis of faith. I know. Shocking isn't it.

The thing is my experiences have been so diverse, well, it is hard not to think of these sorts of things.

So picture it - Toronto on a Sunday afternoon. It is a beautiful day. The sun is shinning and it is starting to get summery warm. You drive downtown for the afternoon to go shopping, have lunch with a friend and maybe even head off for an afternoon at a local museum or are off to the movies.

Then you, of course, toward the end of the day decide it's about time to head home. You head toward the Gardiner. But you are told that the Gardiner, the highway artery between home and the big city, is closed. "Is there an accident?" you think.

Well no but there are a lot of protesters. "About the Tories?" "Over Stephen Harper's policies?"

No, the protesters are upset about the Tamils. "...Tamils?" Yes, in Sri Lanka.

Toronto is the only city on earth that can be shut down by a protest initiated by a known terrorist group, as recognized by the Canadian and American governments. The Tamil Tigers have fought for their own separate state in northern Sri Lanka for over 30 years, but have recently surrendered and seen their militant political leader killed by the Sri Lankan military. Toronto has, in the weeks leading up to the surrender, experienced a myriad of protest clogging our streets, the provincial government and our highways. Only in Toronto.

Now flash forward to Boston this past Saturday. I had offered to volunteer for a mere 5 hours as part of a corporate volunteer program - it was a great opportunity to give back. Until I learned where my corporate volunteering would take place. Catholic Christian Charities part of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Really? A corporate organization is going to make me volunteer for a religious organization? Moreover, a religious organization that has been marred in turbulence since accusations of child abuse became publicly known only a few years ago? This in the country espousing the separation of church and state? Only in Boston.

So what do these two seemingly contradictory events, in two different towns have in common anyway?

In reality they have much more in common, but it is what separates them that makes it interesting. You see, although part of the Boston mainstream now, there was a time when the Catholic church (even in Boston) was looked down upon as the religious institution of the Irish and the Italians - to all protestant accounts "the heathens of the state." On paper the US may have been about separating church and state, but the reality was that Washington and New York were run by the protestants, with a few Jews on the side. One only need hear of the awe at JFK being elected as the first Catholic President in the 1960s to understand the rank and order of where the Catholics fell, even in Boston.

By today's standards, one might more easily see the connections with the Tamils. Although not an inherently religious organization, like the Catholics of Massachusetts, they too are a hyper marginalized organization as the Catholics once were. Hyper, of course, because of the fear and dread around their actions, their fundraising (at home and abroad) and the militancy of their organization. One only need think of the actions of Fenians at the turn of the last century to think that they too, like the Tamils, would likely have appeared on lists of terrorist groups.

But, flashing forward to today does make the difference. In Toronto, it was a known terrorist organization that was willingly allowed to take over our streets. There was no back fighting, largely no arrests and certainly no clubbing, shooting or other defensive police action. The Tamils willingly took a weakened city, one where few have the guts to speak out against anything. Torontonians love the status quo. A city weakened by the largess of what they faced, the knowledge that these were Canadian citizens for the most part and that this was a heightened "political" situation with the cameras following the every action of the protesters.

In Boston, spending a day working for the Catholic church was considered no biggie for pretty much the same reasons: the largeness of the organization, the sense that it is at its heart an American organization (not one controlled from Rome), and it is a "political" organization as well with the cameras turned on it since the accusation of the early 2000s - one that is in the constant "do gooders" mode. The Catholic church in Boston has become yet another grand old dame of the town. Bostonians love clinging to their strongholds - all the things that set them apart from...well...everybody.

And yet. My religious charity work was forced upon me, a non-Catholic, without a second thought. The actions of the Tamil protesters was thrown in the face of Toronto with many a second thought, hysteria and not a few angry drivers.

Who is more right? Hard to tell. Who is more wrong? Even more difficult to differentiate.

One can only wonder to think that in 100 years from now if some corporate organization in Boston is marched off to volunteer for a day with the Tamil relief organization. Or if the Irish will once again take to the streets of Toronto in protest, because being the good monarchists that we are, they wish for a united Irish state one free of Britain and Canada does not seem to care about it. Yes, one can only wonder. Isn't it magnificent. Isn't it remarkable.

Boston: Where Waste Diversion Activities Come to Die

So compared to my US work colleagues, I think I had an odd childhood. Evidence of that comes in a variety of ways but chief of which might have been the assembly I was marched down to in grade 3 where the whole school got together in the gym and we all talked about the importance of recycling. I am serious. It was a relatively new thing in Mississauga, and the city decided that the best way to waste diversion was through nagging children in households across the city. And it largely worked.

Now ours was not the first municipality in Canada or even in Ontario to start recycling - that honor goes to the cities of Kitchener/Waterloo. However, in Mississauga, we got lectured about what could be included (newspapers, cans, glass, plastic bottles, cardboard) and the importance of washing cans and bottles, as well as separating the different sorts of recyclables from one another at a very early age.

Now in Boston, well, I'd be impressed if the term recycling was even whispered in school. Seriously, no one recycles in this town.

For example, the following was an email I received recently --
"Hello,
This is a notification that we will no longer have company recycling. The organization that used to come and collect our recycling no longer exists and the available alternatives charge us unreasonable fees to take it away. And as some of you know it can grow to be out of hand very quickly. So, there will no longer be recycling on any of the floors. If you wish to continue to recycle your bottles and cans, you must do so on your own.
Thank you!"
And a cheery thank you to you too.

You heard that right Canadians - in the US doing away with recycling is a cost saving structure. Now I get this, I do. In these tough economic times we should all be trying to save money. But really - recycling?! So we are embracing the savings now for the costs in the future.

Its like Americans see all of those environmental documentaries on TV and watch them just for the cute fluffy animals completely ignoring the tone of impending doom the narrator uses when talking about threats to the homes of those animals. I'm always listening to that part! No one making animal documentaries is doing it for the cute fluffy stuff - it's always about the impending doom!

For goodness sake people - Al Gore! Al Gore! Al Gore!

Since I've lived in Boston it has been an uphill battle to get recycling services not just in the office but also at home. Usually my battle to get recycling done has involved begging local authorities to get blue boxes and fights with room mates who said "Why don't you just throw it out?" To be completely honest for the past 2 years I haven't even bothered.

But I am not alone and my experience appears not to be unique. The latest figures I can find from 2007, show that Boston only diverts a whopping 15% of their trash to be recycled. Now Toronto on the other hand, managed to divert a much more respectable 42% during approximately that same time period. Generally San Francisco is the model city with regard to recycling, because the city is able to divert a remarkable 70% of trash through recycling and composting (green box) programs. Toronto aims to reach this SFO threshold by 2010. We'll see if they get there, but aggressive work with blue, grey and green box waste diversion programs mean they are at least putting their best foot forward.

Then there is Boston. With a Mayor you can hardly make sense of when he speaks, I guess we were aiming high to think that he might be able to articulate the importance of waste diversion to the city. The guy can hardly deal with transportation issues, so what more can you hope for (watch for future issues ridiculing Mayoral platforms here).

I for one would appreciate it if Boston would embrace the 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Instead the 3Rs they've got going on right now - Reckless, Redundant and Irresponsible.

Boston, The Expedient

An issue has been lingering in the background of this blog, one I haven't taken particular aim at articulating. The issue has been referred to in previous posts but a lack of true attention has been paid to it.

It is the students, colleges and all that the 4 years of undergraduate education can bring with it. Boston does not lack in colleges (again, for the Canadians in the crowd, college = university), in fact they probably suffer from too many of them. This is one of my favorite maps, showing the sheer volume of land that colleges own in the greater Boston area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_college_town_map.png . The count from Wikipedia about the number of colleges in the area is 50.

Now in a town with that much education going on you'd expect a highly intellectual, in for museums and arts crowd, right? Well, maybe if you are Canadian you would. But, oh my dear Canadians, you make the assumption that this is a University of Toronto/UBC/McGill crowd, because of Harvard right? No, no, no. This is a Queen's on a Saturday night/ chick from Western looking to get drunk, laid and hitched crowd.

The debauchery is remarkable. The stooges even take pride in it and tape the stuff. Now that is nothing to be proud of, but the student-y atmosphere manifests itself in other ways as well. The spirit of the student radiates through the town, taking all of us living here down with it in a sprial of drunkeness that only a Friday night can inspire.

I think Boston is the most expedient of cities because of the colleges. Everyone under-25 here will tell you, like any hardened criminal, about how they are "putting in time." The typical scenario plays out in two possible ways:

• Scenario 1: The Townie - Kids from Boston who stay in Boston for school. The proceed to commit fully to the town. Because they have never been away to anywhere, they have no intention of moving. They have formed early friendships with the people from their hometown and have a few friends, for good measure, from college. They do not need any more friends. They will revel in what they've got in Boston and call it a day.
• Scenario 2: The Stay-Over College Kid - Kids that come to Boston for college and end up staying a few extra years to get some work experience and because their friends are here. This is not a committed group to the town. They may think they are for a while, but slowly upon slowly as their college friends drift away so too do they.

Now the expediency comes in in the attitudes that flow from these two post-student studenty types, and it haunts you especially if you didn't go to college here and instead were parachuted in to this town as some form of adult. The Townies don't need you as friends - they don't care - so you are nothing to them and they generally don't become your friend. The more disturbing of the two is the Stay-Overs. For the Stay-Over Types, they may befriend you - but, hey, they are on their way out, so...

A friend of mine as a great term for it. Boston really is the official home of the "superficial friend." In other words (as another former room mate put it to me) a friend in Boston is a friend for now, because you're here now. It isn't a long term thing. When you are no longer of use to them, they move on.

This can be extremely hard on those parachuted types - trust me.

If Toronto is the city of middle management (honestly everyone is a manager, 30 with a dog, husband, child and picket fence in Burlington), then Boston is the king of Entry Level. In that sense they are worlds apart.

Now, you ask, isn't there other types of people around other than these post-studenty types? Well, yes there are. Here, however, is the sorta sick part - the expedient thing, the student thing, seems to resonate throughout the Boston crowd. Everyone here has embraced the attitude toward the town and all are on a temporary hold over it seems. There are a few exceptions, but they are few. Everyone can be done away with in this town. Everyone is just using Boston to fill in a gap on a resume. Everyone is here for a few years, then, you know...

The attitude actually keeps the townies happy -- they seemingly get their city back every few years. It also hardens them, because they've seen it all. Because they never left.

The city, on the other hand, is in continual renewal. The city does, to a certain degree, get reborn every September with a fresh class of college kids....but on the other hand how good can that much high turnover be for one place? As any Bain consultant will tell you, high turnover ultimately lowers productivity and it certainly isn't good for morale.

And it leads inevitably to more turnover.

Because, hey, you are only here to fill the time with a constant view to the end.

Welcome to your expedient years.