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2009 WINNER
OAKBAYNEWS
Friday, January 18, 2013 - OAK
EDITORIAL
BAY NEWS
Penny Sakamoto Group Publisher Kevin Laird Editorial Director Laura Lavin Editor Oliver Sommer Advertising Director
The Oak Bay News is published by Black Press Ltd. | 818 Broughton St., Victoria, B.C. V8W 1E4 | Phone: 250-598-4123 • Fax: 250-386-2624 • Web: www.oakbaynews.com
OUR VIEW
Transit battle needs tough talk Despite efforts to negotiate a new contract without disrupting transit service, members of the Canadian Auto Workers are taking off their gloves Jan. 22 and walking off the job. Fortunately for Greater Victoria commuters, the one-day strike action is just that – one day. However, that one day will see hundreds of extra cars, bikes and pedestrians on the roads, trying to get to work and school. Gridlock won’t begin to describe the traffic chaos we may be Mediation may part of. be the way out of Transit workers’ action has been Transit impasse job moderate so far with little visible interruption, but this strike will clearly affect everyone in the region. Longer strikes more than 10 years ago seriously impacted seniors, students and those with low incomes who regularly rely on transit. A 1984 strike, which lasted three months, crippled Victoria’s economy, and like mullets and Hammer pants, none of us wants to see that again. The two sides clearly aren’t motivated to reach an agreement, in fact they don’t even agree on what the main stumbling blocks are in the dispute – the union insists it’s all about the small buses and the lower-paid drivers, B.C. Transit says there are other issues at play, including wages and benefits. The two sides have both dug in their heels and the public is suffering, moderately so far, with only certain runs cancelled. But with the Tuesday all-day strike planned, it shows that an outside authority needs to step in and get it done. It’s amazing what sides in a dispute will do when the crisis hits. Just look at the NHL. They got a deal done when the season was on the brink of being cancelled. The best solution for everyone is for the two sides to get back to the bargaining table and realize that compromise is the only solution. The union has to be realistic and unafraid of new technology, and management must assure workers that it’s not out to crush the union. What do you think? Give us your comments by e-mail: editor@oakbaynews.com or fax 250-386-2624. All letters must have a name and a telephone number for verification. The Oak Bay News is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
2009
Feeling proud of my dual heritage After a deep breath, Korean air As I waited for luggage items to filled my lungs for the first time. push the black, plastic curtains Emotion flooded my eyes and aside and make the meandering and confusion swelled my heart as loop around the baggage carousel, I timidly made my way off I found myself making a the plane and onto the mental checklist of how tarmac below. Treading I became whoever I was into unknown territory, now. I set foot on Korean soil My first language was for the first time and Korean. My parents had somehow it felt like home. immigrated to Canada I don’t know how or only a few years before why I felt the way I did. A I was born, so my early year later, I still don’t, it years were spent without caught even me off guard. English. I ate mostly Excitement about my Korean food and lived a Arnold Lim inaugural voyage to the Korean lifestyle, albeit in a Minority Report Canadian neighbourhood. birthplace of my parents, was replaced by foggy Like most children, our insecurity about who I family home was the was. entire world, for all I knew. Born to South Korean parents, That changed completely when but raised entirely in Canada, I I started public school and most consider myself Korean Canadian. everyone I interacted with were of At least that is how I explain it to non-Korean descent. In fact, few of everyone, including myself. Yet I my close friends were even Asian. wondered how Canadian I was to I remember being ashamed of my be feeling the way I did, about a school lunches because they looked country I had never even visited. and smelled different than everyone Engulfed in the bustle of a else’s. I tried to eat more western terrifically busy Incheon Airport, I food, just because that was what stepped out to see another first, a everyone else ate. sea of Koreans in every direction. As college and early adulthood Everywhere I turned, people who crept up on me, I found myself looked like I do, didn’t bother to looking fondly upon my heritage look back at me. On the outside I and I recall being thankful I could was a member of the majority – on speak a second language. I still the inside I wasn’t so sure. am, and today’s comfort food is
as much kimchee and rice as it is turkey and mashed potatoes. Listen in to a dinner party at my parents’ place today, and sounds of a Korean-English hybrid fill the air, probably understandable only to those within our home’s four walls. When we argue, we default back to our strongest language. For my parents, Korean, for me, English. They still don’t even say Korea by name, still referring to it as “back home,” as if it is across the street, or a short drive up the road from our home in Victoria, even though it is halfway across the world. For them, maybe it is more black and white, but for me it is anything but. Someone once asked: ‘If South Korea and Canada were at war, and I was forced to fight for one side, who I would fight for?’ I had no answer then – 20 years later I still don’t. After grabbing my luggage off the carousel, I fished around in my jacket for my passport to show it to the security guard, who speaks to me in Korean. My passport says Canadian and in many ways so does my heart. There are just a lot of extra Korean stamps all over both. Maybe that is what makes me Canadian, because I wouldn’t have it any other way. Arnold Lim is a Black Press reporter in Greater Victoria. alim@vicnews.com
‘Few of my close friends were even Asian.’