Chinese New Year - The Year of Rat

It's the Year of Rat in Chinese New Year. This is my year! On Chinese New Year's Day, highlight was the lunch potluck at OHSAH. Very delicious food. Although I was aware that Vancouver has big Chinese population, I was still surprised by the scale of celebration even in a medium size organization like OHSAH. It was great to see those white folks being so excited and celebrated the festival with us. Someone even cooked a Chinese dish for the first time. My supervisor, who usually doesn't care about dresses, wore red to work and was so happy to tell me she dressed her two kids with red hats in the morning! See the Chinese influence?! =)

Too Easy to Forget

Bathurst, NB is a small town with about 18,000 population. Last week, it was struck by a tragic car accident which killed seven high school basketball players. On Friday, CBC National had a special session that asked the question:“How will Bathurst get over this tragedy?” Out of less than 20,000 population, about 10,000 people came out and attended the funeral memorial. In this little town, everyone knows each other, everyone seems to have some sort of connection with those seven kids -- they are like their own children. The community coped with the ordeal by setting up memorials along the highway where the accident happened, by consoling others whenever they met, by appreciating the cards and flowers sent from all over the country. In the question “How would you help people in this town shift the focus to other things of normal life” during the CBC interview, the mayor of the town said: “No. We simply don’t. If people want to talk about it, we talk about it. If they want to remember the boys, we try to help them in all ways we can offer.” What a truthful answer that is! I think people nowadays tend to forget things too fast. Yes, many of us have “more important” things to take care of, so when things like this happen, the way we deal with them is to forget. Soldiers were forgotten on the battle field; homeless and poor people were forgotten behind the back alley; even sometimes families were quickly forgotten because one has his/her “own business” to cater for. Those “more important” things can be all different kinds, but I do not understand what is more important than your life and the life around you. I’m sure Bathurst will leave this nightmare behind someday in the near future. But for now, take your time now to remember it...