The quote above, I have heard several times since moving back to Canada, 3 times in the last week alone. I sit and wonder, is there something in the water? Now don’t get me wrong, it is a nice city. My problem stems from the idea that a lot of these people can’t wrap their head around the idea that the world is so much bigger than Canada. So even if you feel that this is the best city in the country, you have no basis for it being the best city in the world. (I do not agree that Vancouver is the best city in Canada.)

The problem I see here, is the same problem I see when I travel almost anywhere. “My Country/ City /Province is so much better than the place I am now.” The problem with these people is that they have judged a place before they see it. And they can’t/won’t change their preconceived notions. And sometimes they are hard to change. I know that for me, before 2003, My idea of Los Angeles was the opening scene from Predator 2. Gang warfare on every street corner, the police fighting against the gangs, the citizens caught in the crossfire. What changed? I WENT to Los Angeles, and had a good friend show me around. It’s a pretty nice city. (I like it better than I do Vancouver…)

Another problem I see is lack of knowledge. The people I have talked to have all called the rest of Canada “Boring” with nothing to do. Funny That’s how I feel in Vancouver most days. Do some research, whatever you find “Fun” will be the same in every city across Canada, except maybe swimming in the ocean, which you can find on the Atlantic Coast just as easily as the Pacific coast. If you go to Montreal and want to go clubbing, find out about the club scene before you go.

And the last complaint I have no solution for. Vancouverites can’t stand the cold, and the rest of Canada is too darn cold. I actually love snow, and cold weather and was very disappointed to find both lacking here. I wanted to make snowmen with the kids, and take them tobogganing and have snowball fights. The simple joys of life for a typical

On the other hand I have seen a lot more negativity in Vancouver than I remember being in Canada since I returned, More people who are Health-paranoid, and yet Uber-caffeinated. I have seen more racism and sexism than I am comfortable with. The Racism is very sly and subtle but it oozes across Vancouver, the sexism is not so subtle. I have met a ton of pierced & tattooed people who swear their kids are not allowed to do either.

I sit and wonder, why this city is so different from the rest of Canada. I have always been proud of our Cold Winters, our multi-lingual & multi-cultural Heritage, our ability to welcome people from the world with open arms, and our ability to help each other when in need. Very little of each of these have I seen since moving to the Vancouver area. I wonder if when we return to Canada if this is the place we will settle, I hope we settle in a place a bit more Canadian, eh?

There has been a trend lately in North America to have our Superheroes kill. I find it sad, and feel that we have lost contact with what superheroes are, and why we have them. Superheroes from around the world have not changed their attitudes nearly so drastically as North American ones have. Some countries superheroes are very much based upon North American “Classic” ideology, and some have their own ideologies.

Recent “Heroes” that have immerged have been a lot more violent than I am comfortable with, and I think the one that disturbed me the most was a recent “Trans-media” series about Canadian heroes. The “Heroes of the North” is a video & comic series available online about Canadian super-soldiers. They state right in the first episodes that is what they are. They begin with origins, & have each character’s origin ending with them killing someone, sometimes a rival soldier (Non-super). But they define what I call super soldiers. They are not crime fighters, they are not there to help the population. They are created to defend the country from terrorists. That is a super-soldier. I may not like super-soldiers killing, but they do it for the defence of the country, and I don’t have to collect those comics or videos.

It really bothers me when superheroes start killing, though. Classic heroes like Batman or Superman, who both in their last reboots (Christian Bale Batman, & Man of Steel) killed. I don’t believe that any of the villains survived Batman’s wrath in those movies, and Superman would have found another way of dealing with Zod in the Man of Steel. Superheroes came out of depressions where the continent had so much crime that the regular people felt they had no hope, and were commonly committing suicide. Superheroes were people who had superpowers, sometimes that power was just caring, or money like “The Green Hornet” or “The Batman,” sometimes that actually had powers like “The Shadow” or “Superman” did. And yes, in the really old comics and radio dramas the bad guys died, but (from my research, if you see otherwise send me the cbr file) the Superhero did not kill them, they died trapped in their own evil plans. “Superheroes” are civilian, they help people. They stop criminals from hurting people, they let the justice system deal with criminals that have been stopped. They know that the moment they cross the line of killing that they are no better than the people they are trying to thwart. Superheroes don’t involve themselves in wars. The moment Superheroes act in war, they are super soldiers. And this doesn’t end well for us normals. For evidence of this take a look at Alan Moore’s “The Watchmen” or check out the movie by the same name, in which the Supers of America won the Vietnam War for the USA.

North American Super-heroes usually deal with internal problems. The Evil is human, and in modern times the evil is always major. Super heroes don’t stop crime anymore they stop super-crime. Police could stop a bank robber, Superman stops would-be-world-dominators. Where as in East Asia, the Evil is usually external, aliens, demons or monsters, almost never human. In Southeast Asia the superheroes defend the population from Supernatural evil: witches, werewolves, vampires and their like. Both East Asian and South East Asian heroes kill monsters and non-human threats to the world. They usually try not to, but to the populations of those areas, monsters need to be destroyed.

Now my experience with authentic superheroes from other countries is limited to a few sources. Cyber-6, and Captain Africa for example cover the European and African continents, but 1 hero does not a genre make. (Yes I know Cyber-6 takes place in Argentina, but it is written originally for an Italian audience). So it is hard for me to gather what the attitudes of the rest of the planet are towards Superheroes vs Super-Soldiers. I am open to learning however, if anyone wants to introduce me to a free comic (or one I can find for cheap) from the rest of the world. (And Captain Britain doesn’t count as a European Comic in my mind, as it is published by Americans for Americans).

Why do fast food restaurants call them “girl toys” and “boy toys”? Is there supposed to be a difference? Not long ago I got 2 children’s meals from the local fast food restaurant, and they ask if I wanted boy toys or girl toys, I said I wanted 1 of each. Generally my daughter will play with the “Boy toy” and unless it’s Barbie, my son will play with the “Girl toy.” (He used to, but my wife asked him to stop stripping the clothes off them.) This time I got home and took the toys out for them to see, I had a sword spinning pirate, and a super-villain’s race car that shot plastic missiles. So which is which, and why were they labelled boy and girl?

The concept of gender based toys is an old one, that when you think about it we propagate a lot. If you go to most major toy stores they have them divided clearly (Some even mark on the walls “for him” or “for her”) But you will have black sleek bows and arrows made like a ninja assassin would carry, with a boy on the box. Next to that you will have this pink bow covered in hearts and teddy bear stickers, with a girl on the box. Now I know a couple of girls that like archery, and they aren’t going to choose the pink cutsie bow, they’re going to sneak up in their ninja clothes behind you with their black or blue ninja bow and shoot you with that suction dart in your butt.

There is also a major misconception about how toys will dictate your emerging sexual preference (especially for boys). When I was young, a lot of people were certain I would be gay. Why? Because I had an easy bake oven, a small collection of dolls. I played house with my girlfriends.I really didn’t care for toy cars or GI Joe. I wrote poetry in grade school. I got invited to “girl’s nights out” in highschool. (I loved that. ^_~) I am a happily married straight man with 2 children. I’m just a nice guy. (please don’t post me and tell me I’m not.)

Even today these old fashioned attitudes of what girls should do and boys should do is everywhere. Yesterday I was at the post office and a woman came in with her little girl, about 4 years old. The little girl got bored, as anyone does in the line at the post office, and she starts crawling on the floor pretending to be a lion. Her mother’s first comment to me, like she had to defend her daughter’s actions was “She’s been playing too much with her brother.” I thought, but didn’t say “Nope, she just young and bored.” After a bit she bruised her knee, and much like one of my brothers would, sat there and calmly told her mother that it hurt, then started poking the bruise over and over and over, just to make sure it still hurt.

Now my question, do any children fit these gender molds we have set up as a society? If so, honestly why have I never met one that does completely. Why do we set up these molds? Is it because subconsciously we believe that is the way things should be? Is it something our parents and their parents trained us to do? What are your thoughts on this?