East Versus West..

I was walking down a corridor when my roaming eyes caught an interesting poster on the wall. “ Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity”. Due to a possible memory lapse, I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down. The Abbotsford/Mission Times is offering this collective strength to our young readers (aged 14 to 26). The Times is presenting: Building an Inclusive, Diverse Community, giving our youth an opportunity to express their opinion how we can make our community inclusive. Or are we are already inclusive? I still unfortunately witness challenges in how we see and speak to each other. For example, someone who I know recently said to me all the problems seem to occur on the West Side of Abbotsford. He further added there is a small minority in your community (Indo Canadian) that are causing these problems. I was just waiting for him to say: Ken, I am not racist. It’s funny how that always seems to follow. The ones that say they aren’t, are often the ones that are. He later said, he resides on the East Side of Abby.
Sir, it is always a small minority in every community group that ruin it for the general masses. This is not the first time I heard such a stupid remark. To add further insult to the injury, to automatically assume that all the crime occurs where the brown people live is down right disturbing. How did he calculate the correlation in this relationship between these two existing variables? It’s almost like saying Abbotsford/Mission was the Murder Capital of Canada for 2008. Ouch. Someone is skewing his or her data incorrectly in Ottawa.
To build this collective strength we need to stop geographically dividing Abbotsford into east verses west. To put the record straight, Indo Canadians live in all parts of Abbotsford, not just the west. This would be a fantastic submission for someone to explore. Our question again, “ What have you done or what can you do to make our community inclusive?” As promised last week, here are some excellent examples towards building an inclusive environment.
--- Abbotsford recently hosted, The Special Olympics BC Summer Games. The weekend event included 1,100 athletes the largest in the history of the event, along with around 300 coaches and support staff. Rick Lucy, the director of the Games and the many volunteers did a great job in organizing the event.
--- The Punjabi Patrika, also known as “Abbotsford’s third paper”. The bi-weekly local publication is going weekly. The unveiling will take place on August 29th at Publisher Andy Sidhu’s residence from 2-5pm. A garden party is being held to mark this occasion. The first edition is being sold and all monies raised will be going to the Abbotsford Police Foundation. The Patrika will be celebrating 13 years this October.
---- Habitat for Humanity Upper Fraser Valley in Abbotsford is an independent, non-profit housing society, dedicated to building affordable homes in partnership with families in need. Homeowners contribute hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” to the no-interest mortgage. Mortgage costs are kept low by the use of volunteer labor and by the donation of funds and building materials. They sell new and used building materials at low prices. For more information contact Restore Manager Mike Cecil at (604) 557 1020 or go to there website at www.habitatufv.ca
--- The Abbotsford Police is reminding citizens the Chief Constable’s Diversity Advisory Committee is always seeking input from citizens, who are interested in the areas of diversity. The committee is not currently seeking new members, but are always interested in discussing new ideas reflecting the community. For more information contact Cst. Wanda Lane (604) 864 4776.
All entries can be emailed to me at the address below or dropped of the Times office at (30887 Peardonville Rd) in Abbotsford.