Update: It's not 1820 anymore. Women rightfully celebrate Gold Medal Victory with Cigars and Beer

Because the world in which we live is a fucked up place, wrought with deeply rooted social inequalities and insidious violent discrimination, I vent. To remind myself that I am not the unreasonable one, that the world I envision isn't a product of unquestioned youthful naivite, I vent. Here it is.

Despite my strong anti-Olympic stance, I watched parts of the woman's gold medal game before I headed to my evening class. Imagine, then, my suprise when the news coverage this morning centred on the fact that the Canadian woman's hockey team, after all spectator's had left B.C. Place, returned to the ice to celebrate their victory with champagne, beer and cigars. News coverage of the event revealed the IOC and COC's condemnation of their behaviour. The team offered an apology.

Celebrating olympic gold in hockey with cigars and alcohol- has this ever happened before? Was that behaviour condemned by the IOC and the COC? Did it require an apology, or was it broadcast proudly on the front page of newspapers?

Courtesy of Vancouver's Poet Laureate, Brad Cran. http://bradcran.com/vancouver_verse/on-women’s-gold-equality-and-the-ioc/

Sexism in this country is stiffling, suffocating, and infuriating. And unacknowledged. The coverage of the women's gold medal celebrations merits an ENORMOUS "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" It deserves our rage, and our continued action.

Back in BC

In a way, it's good to be back in BC. Being away from the west coast means that my return is filled with a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the beauty that only BC can offer. I'm also living in a new area of Victoria, so I have new ocean views to experience.

Last night I ventured down for my first night time stroll. It's bit further and the night is eerily silent and dark. But, armed with my music, etc. I started off down through my quaint, lovely victorian neightbourhood towards to water at the end of Cook St.

I walked to the cement platform overlooking the ocean and the beach. The sky was full of white lumpy clouds, and the moon, three-quarters full and shinning bright, was reflecting off the ocean. Lights from other parts of Victoria shone in the distance. The ocean streched east and west till the cliffs broke the sandy shore. The waves broke against the shore, at high tide, rhythmic, a bit aggitated, but still peaceful. In the presence of the ocean, I felt grounded, reminded the be open, fluid, yet maintain my own voice in the face of so much new thinking and learning.

Back in BC, back for a final semester, and looking to remain grounded, open, and peaceful throughout.