Post 115—Our Dutch Trip--Reflections

I’m back!  And if I get this post online today, I’m back even earlier than promised on May 27.  And let me tell you, as wonderful as our trip was, there’s still nothing like home, which for me is downtown Vancouver BC.

Canada--My Home

Yes, home for me is in Canada, but I continue to have a strong feeling for two other countries. There is my birth country as well as Nigeria, the country where my wife and I spent 30 years in ministry, where we raised our family and, even after having left there 20 years ago, is still uppermost in my mind and affections. But for today, it is my birth country, NL—The Netherlands.

My Affection for Nigeria

My many Nigerian friends who read this post should not be jealous at my “divided” affection. Many things in life diminish when you share or divide them. When you give a $100 to one person that recipient gets more than when you divide it over two persons. But when you give love to one or two or a thousand persons, it does not diminish, each gets an equal share. Money divided diminishes; love or affection divided increases. That’s the nature of the beast. (I should probably call it “the angel” rather than “the beast.”) 

Besides, if you check my website ( www.SocialTheology.com) , you will find that I have paid much more attention, energy, time, money and, yes, affection on Nigeria than I have on the NL. At the same time, the background and perspective I utilized in my Nigerian ministry, including my many publications, have a definite Dutch philosophical and theological colouration, based as they are on the Kuyperian or Reformational school of thought. So, a nice mixture of these two cultures in my life with no need for either party to be jealous! Actually, I don’t believe anyone will be jealous in this situation, but there is nothing like  pre-emptying a negative possibility! But for this post and the next, it will be NL.

Flat and Green

Living as I do in BC (British Columbia, Canada), there is one thing that particularly strikes me every time I visit the “Old Country” is its flatness.  When I lived in Nigeria and visited the country, I was struck by its greenness. So fresh and green everywhere as soon as you leave the city. And that, in contrast to Nigeria’s seasonal green, all year round. But coming out of BC, it is the flatness of the country that is impressive, especially when combined with the green. It is interrupted only by the many man-made “hills” that serve as approaches to bridges or as overpasses.  Now such unending flatness may sound dull to those who prefer rolling hills or towering mountains, but in combination with the green, it creates beautiful breath-taking scenery wherever you go. I am not sure which of the two I would prefer to live in, flat or mountainous, but for a change, I simply loved it as my wife and I rolled through it all by means of train, bus, rental and even bike. The flat lusciousness of it all.

The Bike Culture

Living as I do in North America (NA), another thing that made my eyes grow green with jealousy is the large presence of bicycles (from here on referred to as “bikes”).  What a different love affair from NA’s love of cars. Bikes everywhere, no matter where you turn, except, of course, along express ways. Not being used to such heavy bike traffic, it was more challenging for us as pedestrians in the city to avoid collisions with bikes than with cars. They even have single-floor parking garages for bikes but often store them two high above each other, especially at bus and train stations. Bikes are used for most local trips as well as farther afield. They are used for serious transportation even more than for recreation, but their vacation use is the greatest demonstration of the Dutch love for the bike. Our hosts took us out biking into the country along a network of crisscrossing bike paths everywhere.

Various features of the bike culture struck me. Most people wear ordinary street clothes on their bikes; no special attire, even women in minis. No helmets and, not infrequently, no hands either, for they are needed for the smart phone as you negotiate traffic!  

Single bikes are good for transporting entire families!  A parent in/on the saddle doing the peddling, with one child on the back carrier and one in a special seat mounted on or behind the handle bar. Our main hostess told us that this is a major time of intimacy with your little tike at your front on your bike. And if your children are not on the actual bike, they could be sitting comfortably in a box mounted on the front of the bike, an arrangement called “bakfiets” or “boxbike,” two or even three at a time, but now we have graduated to three-wheelers.  

Another sociable feature of the bike culture is that with separate bike paths, people often ride side by side, chatting amicably as they go, so different from the sparse biking in Vancouver where it is always behind instead of next to each other. As to the bakfiets, it is also used to transport goods, sometimes in open, sometimes in covered boxes.

You’d think that flat country would make for effortless biking, but there is a hitch—strong winds that are as challenging as steep hills. From my own childhood I remember regularly coasting up one of these artificial hills, pushed along by strong winds, but peddling hard on the way down. I also remember peddling a bakfiets to deliver bread for a neighbouring bakery. So, as fascinating as I found the bike culture, it was not altogether new to me. I experienced all the above features at one time or another way back then. Though other forms of transport have greatly proliferated since then—cars, buses, trains—the bike has not lost its popularity or omnipresence in any way.  In fact, the bike has increased along with the country’s population.  

Mayor Robertson's Bike Challenge

I’m sure our Vancouver mayor’s eyes must be as green as mine were. I wish him all the success, luck and blessing he needs to make our city more bike friendly.  He has courageously pushed ahead in his bike programme in the face of much ridicule and opposition. I hope he will not relent. I believe he represents the future of our city when it comes to biking.  We once thoughtlessly embraced the car without considering many of its negatives or even being aware of them. It will take a lot of planning and politicking to undo the damage we have inflicted on ourselves and our environment.

Post 59—The Metro Vancouver Translink Plebiscite

Pete McMartin of VS was really upset when the citizens of Metro Vancouver rejected a slight additional tax to pay for Translink expansion (July 4, 2015).  He wrote a scathing column, using such strong language that a few days later the paper published an editorial openly disagreeing with their man (July 9, 2015).  Well, yes, they can’t afford to overly insult their readers as if they are bird brains. This is how McMartin describes his neighbours:

They’re resistant to change. They abhor densification. They’re conventional in their sensibilities and they’re highly dependent on the automobile. More importantly, they’re not just dependent on the automobile, they prefer it.

I would love to quote him for the rest of this post, but it might be illegal? So, a summary of his vitriolics has to do it for us. 

The excuse many use for not taking transit is that they would if it were near and more convenient. That, he charges, is an outright lie. He daily commutes by bus in less time than it takes a car, but the bus is seldom more than a quarter full. They voted “no” about a system they have never used and have no idea how well it works, whether good or bad. It does not occur to them that the system reduces the pressure on the road and thus those still driving also benefit from the subsidy. They reject a mere .5% tax hike subsidy for Translink, but think nothing of the subsidy of billions spent on roads and bridges that are forever inadequate and clogged. 

Though Vancouverites tend to see themselves as a special breed in a world-class city, McMartin finds that “we’re nothing special.” Our city “is like a hundred other cities. We can’t see past the ends of our driveways, much less into the future, and we don’t want to. The No side didn’t win the plebiscite. The car did.”

The subsequent editorial denied McMartin’s negatives and  insisted that the negative vote was the result of public mistrust of the Translink administration. Furthermore, while the No vote rejected the extra subsidy, it is already having a positive effect in that a movement has been created towards better and more efficient governance of Translink, including the firing of some of its top executives.  The Sun editorial supports the idea of moving the service from the Province back to Metro authorities, where it was a few years earlier, but snatched away by the Province.

Deep in my heart, I largely agree with McMartin, but he expressed himself too offensively for most people. I confess to enjoying his vitriolic. It is largely right on, not because people are ignorant so much as selfish, which leads to contradictions. 

I also largely agree with much of the editorial, but find that their its solution is superficial.  Some years ago, the provincial government took the service out of the hands of Metro authorities, who number over 20, each with its own agenda. It was difficult to move forward with so many strong-willed politicians at the table. To now return Translink back to these same authorities would be to set the clock back and restore the former blockage.

I believe that the basic solution is to amalgamate all these 20+ jurisdictions into one as, I understand, was done in Toronto.  The current makeup of Lower Mainland jurisdictions is nothing but ridiculous, absurd. It serves as a model for how not to organize local government. As long as we are so ridiculously fractured, it is unlikely that the Translink problems will be solved. 

Do I have any hope for this direction? Unfortunately, not at this point in time. Such a move  needs a popular movement to push it forward, something of which I see no sign at the moment. But surely, if we have been smart enough to organize our current Metro setup, we are also smart enough to realize that developments have overtaken that model and rendered it obsolete. Every progressive movement eventually spends itself and needs to be replaced by something more relevant to the succeeding newly developed contemporary situation. 

In closing, I do want it understood that it is not the current Translink mess that has brought me to this conclusion.  Behind this long-standing opinion is my rejection of  this selfish politics on the part of politicians, which is, I believe, the basic reason this clumsy system continues to exist. So, now we have to go back even one more step—overcome selfishness and personal or local ambition at the expense of the larger community. Remember the title of this blog: “My World—My Neighbour.”  We’re back to basic Christianity that’s open to the world and to the concerns of others—your neighbours.