The ongoing debate between Canada’s role in Afghanistan is one of the hot issues in this country, and the opinions vary quite a bit. Many, led by the Liberal Government, feel that Canada’s role in Afghanistan has gone beyond that of peacekeeping and that we should pull out. Others, led by the Conservative government, are quick to assert that Canadian troops do belong there to quell the militants of the opposite side of the Axis.

I’m not writing this article to debate whether our role in Canada is right or not, but I’d like to point out what we should and should not be criticizing. Recently an anti-war group in Ontario wrote letters encouraging soldiers to NOT join the mission in Afghanistan, but instead, desert the military before they end up in Afghanistan. Other critics are blatantly criticizing the military itself for its actions in which Afghanistan civilians are killed.

Soldiers are meant to obey. They are trained to obey. People who are well educated and well opinionated do not belong in the army, and will not join an army unless drafted upon because they cannot handle the idea of being in action killing people without completely agreeing to the mission themselves. They will question the authority, and question the motive of their missions, hence reducing their capacity as a well-equipped, finely-tuned combat machine.

Do not criticize the soldiers. They are not the ones you should be criticizing when you are against the war in Afghanistan, but you should be criticizing the government, including Stephen Harper and O’Connor. The soldiers are not the ones to make the decisions on where to fight. They simply do as they are told, with the utmost belief that they are serving their country. They are courageous, self-less, and they endure many risks and loss of lives to accomplish what they feel is right.

Regardless of whether you are against the mission or not, sending letters to soldiers and their families and criticizing the military personel is a stupid, misguided act. By sending those letters they spat on the faces of soldiers, who, regardless of politics, are willing to put their lives at risk for what they believe is right.

If you have a problem with the war in Afghanistan, write letters to the Conservative MPs, or to Stephen Harper, or O’Connor, the Minister of Defense. Don’t write to the soldiers. They are doing what they feel is the best, regardless of how un-opinionated or brainwashed they may be. They genuinly feel that they are doing this for their nation, and for you, and are brave beings.

The Sey-To-Sky highway, which is the prettier name for Hwy-99 that runs through British Columbia to connect Vancouver to  Whistler (with Squamish, Britannia Beach, Porteau Cove, Lion’s Bay, Horseshoe Bay on the way) is becoming the next big strip of development. As many of you may be aware, the 2010 Winter Olympic games are being held in Whistler BC, and the transportation/accomodation infrastructure between Vancouver and Whistler is going through major developments.

The Sea-to-Sky Highway, which was considered a rather dangerous and difficult highway due to the fact that it’s too windy and has only 1 lane each way, is now becoming 2 lanes in most sectors (if not all), and the skytrain lines are being added within the city to resolve the traffic between Richmond and Vancouver, as well as in the Tri-Cities. The cheap accomodations which generally provided eyesores (the buildings and the people who occupied it both) are now being ripped apart and replaced with nicer buildings that suit the beauty of Vancouver. And no, I’m not sympathetic enough to worry about the drug-addicted near-homeless or employment-insurance milking losers who live in those “single occupancy hotels”.

Anyhow back on topic. The developments along the Sea-to-Sky Highway corridors are the next big thing for investors, as the real estate value as well as the community size of the regions are expected to grow even more.  There are already some projects that are confirmed which provide thousands of new homes, and I personally know of a plan that is underway to develop something really big. Can’t disclose the details here, but I’m just hinting - keep your eyes open. If you want to diversify your real estate investments and not concentrate too much on the city (although personally I would invest in the city still), this is a great chance to split your eggs into different baskets.

I call this the extension of the West Coast. LA and SF was the big thing at first. Now we have Seattle, and then there’s Vancouver which already has climbed its way up to being the 13th best city in the world to live in. The beautiful West Coast of North America continues to extend northbound towards Whistler and Squamish, and what used to be considered a rural tourist attraction with limited industry will soon become a diversified area with its own industrial infrastructure, enough permanent population (half of Whistler’s population are transient population at this point, but that will change), and the accessibility from Vancouver.

Exciting, isn’t it?

“It’s like uncovering the ash-ridden lungs of a cancer patient - he may look perfectly fine on the skin and what not, but when you get to the depths of this, the hideous and low-class segments of the city are barren and wasted - adding a black spot to the elegance and the beauty of the city.”

It’s been a few years since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was confirmed. My home country, Korea, was in the running to but they lost the bid. But hey, I’m in Vancouver, and I get to enjoy the benefits of it, so it’s all good for me. Either way it was going to be happy news for me!

Now let’s move onto the meat and juice of this post. Vancouver is one of those cities that has experienced explosive growth in its real estate market, and will continue to do so in the future. It is a city of wealth. There are a fair amount of wealthy people in this city, and the real estate prices are the highest in Canada. It is rated as the 13th, if not the 12th (pardon my memory) best city in the world to live in. I’m not surprised. If you can get past the constant rain during the winter seasons, the temperature is quite mild, and the summer weather is nothing short of beautiful and pleasant. Although there is the eyesore of homeless people (it’s nice and warm - it’s easier being homeless here than in Calgary!), overall, the streets are beautiful (especially in Yaletown, which is where I live. Coal Harbour is nice too - it was my previous neighbourhood!), the people are healthy (only 12% or so of our population is overweight - making it the healthiest city in Canada), and the economy is good.

Well. Great city, yes. But it is also one of those cities where you have to work hard to get it. This may sound true in any part of the world, but it is so especially in Vancouver. The real estate prices are quite challenging, and gas prices are higher than the rest of the regions in Canada, and we have one of the highest taxes in Canada. Also, the traffic is not the greatest - if you cannot afford to live downtown (which a lot of family’s cannot), they you have to face the commute to work, unless you’re lucky enough to work in your local suburb. If you’re rich (or like me, with no family and enough money to afford Yaletown) then life is awesome. If not, well. Not the greatest, but still quite good.

If you hit the East side of Vancouver, where they have the “single occupancy hotel rooms” (which is a positively-notated term for cheap dirty housing for druggies and near-homeless people and other losers) surrounded by barrages of homeless people who cannot even afford that, it’s not so pretty anymore. It’s like uncovering the ash-ridden lungs of a cancer patient - he may look perfectly fine on the skin and what not, but when you get to the depths of this, the hideous and low-class segments of the city are barren and wasted - adding a black spot to the elegance and the beauty of the city.
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“The individuals benefit from the knowledge of other individuals, and as a mass, we become greater than the sum of us all!!!”

Facts :

• People, overall, are more intelligent and more informed than ever.
• One week’s worth of newspapers will give more information than the amount of information given to an average person living in Europe in the 1800’s… in a lifetime.
• 3,000 new books are published each day.
• In the last 2 years or less, there have been 17 Billion new web pages added to the WWW (World Wide Web). Between 1998 and 2005 (a 7 year period), the growth was a mere (well, mere compared to the recent growth) 8 Billion pages.
• Google indexes over 25 Billion web pages and 1.3 Billion images now (well, that statistic was released at least a few weeks or even months ago)

We has human beings are becoming more and more intelligent and that is due to the spreading of information. Scientists still say human beings, on average, use only between 10~20% of their brain capacity, and we can do more. The information highway, internet, is making it possible for us to learn a hell of a lot more than we ever could. That creates a transfer of knowledge and information, and the human society, as a collective, becomes more and more intelligent. The individuals benefit from the knowledge of other individuals, and as a mass, we become than the sum of us all!!!

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Homelessness is a major problem in Vancouver, especially in Downtown Vancouver. They’re everywhere. Most of them are harmless and mentally disabled, but it is simply an unpleasant site. Call me prejudiced and snobby if you like, but Vancouver is supposed to be a nice clean city, and the mere sight of irresponsible, erratic, job-less, and homeless people piss me off and I don’t feel that they belong there. I feel that the value of our city is reduced significantly because of these folks. This is quite a major issue in Vancouver, BC, and it needs to be stopped or reduced somehow. Here are my angry radical thoughts on it.

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