Still Thinking…

A recent tragedy happened at the very same airport that I frequent. I cannot describe to you how incredibly sad the story is, the story of a 40-year old Polish man who took the first flight of his life to be in Canada and get reunited with his waiting mother.

The story is all over the news here in Canada. The Polish man is a new immigrant, and does not speak English. He arrived at the Vancouver International Airport and waited for at the baggage area for his mother, as instructed. For some reason they never found each other, and his mum returned to Kamloops, several hours drive away – possibly worried.

What happened was that the man was at the airport, waited for his mum and was hanging around the airport baggage claim area for 6 hours. Many who read the story were perplexed why wouldn’t any airport staff approach him and find a translator to communicate with him, but that’s another issue. After that many hours of waiting for your mother in a new country, not speaking any English and possibly very hungry and thirsty as well – anyone would be agitated. He was and he did throw some tantrums and the security and police were called.

The police came. They saw him, he was not even violent – just agitated I would say. The police were told by people at the airport that he does not speak English but they still did. He walked away and he was tasered. And the man died.

The mum, who by now has returned to Kamloops, were told by airport staff that they have located her son. She drove back to Vancouver and I can only imagine how relieved she must have felt and how excited she was to have her son in Canada. Instead of the warm embrace she was possibly looking forward to, the mother had a lifeless body to hold.

When this story first broke, the reactions were many. I followed the story closely and was waiting anxiously for the video of the incident to be released. The video was recorded by a passenger who was at the incident. When it was broadcasted last night, I cried alone in my living room. I saw the Polish man’s confused face and could not believe how rough the police was to a confused man.

This morning, DH and I talked abt the incident again. Then he told me that the mother could have flown the son direct from Poland to Kamloops, but wanted him to stop at Vancouver so that she can take him on the long drive from Vancouver to Kamloops. Why? Because she wanted him to see how beautiful Canada is. I cried. Again. And again.

There are many news report that affect me. Some are stories that I myself have to report as a journalist back then, and many of them remain vaguely in my memory.But this one, I think, is one I truly cannot forget.

I leave you with the video to make your own judgement.

Hmmm…feels like back home, doesn’t it?
Notice how ‘Smith’ is way down in the pile.
Here is a list of Vancouver’s most common surnames, in ascending order.

WONG 2,928
LEE 2,543
CHAN 1,927
CHEN 1,123
LI 1,111
LEUNG 873
LAM 869
SMITH 848
NG 771
WANG 766

I have been a fervent non-champion of anything fiction. I don’t grow up with novels, yes including the romance ones that my eldest sister and late cousin used to devour. I did read a book or two of Enid Blyton, and the several books I got for birthday presents and everything else was a blur.

Now when it comes to non-fiction, you are talking about different levels with me. I lurvee to see logic and congruity. I love facts when they are backed up, even leftist opinions at that. I like clever twists, only when facts are involved. I get more excited by the opinion that reality is a perception… oh what millions of pandora boxes that opens!!

My non-affiliation with fiction extended to tv and movies.DH will be the first to testify he hates, make that HATES watching anything fiction with me. I have a million questions (and comments) on why that character did this and that, why the plot twist must be to THAT way, and what was the writer thinking of when he pulled out THAT surprise. He thinks I am obsessed with tearing things apart, and I always argued back it is because it is my inability to appreciate fiction as much he does. (DH is the kind of audience any producer loves. He watches episodes after episodes of his favourite drama series back to back, and knows the characters so well he can write a 500 page dossier psychonalysing them).

Now, I think I agree with him. I have not told him this of course, I am writing this away safely locked in our home office while he is , well, watching another episode of Heroes. How I come to this realisation is uncanny.

I recently commissioned an experienced TV writer to write a mini-bible for a drama series we are developing. He wrote a 10-pager, sent it in and the drill was to get a colleague in the SG office to review it, while I work on other things involved in getting the pilot commissioned. After all, I am not a drama fan, and my closest partner and colleague in SG knows that well.

When the draft came in, I was scrutinising the pages with a red pen, read and re-read it again – sitting down at my desk, slouched on the sofa with my MacBook, horizontal on my bed …you get the idea. I went through the lines, the choice of names, the continuity of the scenes and I don’t know what else. Mind you, this is only the mini-bible – NOT the script. I had so many comments about this and that, I cannot wait to speak with the said writer.

Now… if you use logic – how can a non-drama fan, who would rather blog than to watch Heroes with her husband in the living room, be so critical of a drama in development? I don’t see the connection at all. Am I a champion of dramas? No. The only connection I see is the fact that I want to see congruity – and the only way to do that is by tearing things up.

So DH is right? Brrr. Now don’t you go telling him that. That would be a spoiler, and we don’t want scenes like that too early in the plot. Hahahaha…