misc ramblings n' thoughts...
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| james' blog... misc ramblings n' thoughts... |
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Diversity... In economics, you learn that although diversity is a costly thing, yet it is important, wanted, and beneficial. Let me explain. Suppose we have only one company in our model society that manufactures clothes that everybody wears and they only make one generic mono-coloured body suit. Because of industrialization and the assembly line, technology and specialized machinery, they could probably produce these millions of body suits for a very very very low price. It would cost probably a buck or two to buy your wardrobe. But how many people would actually agree to wearing the exact same thing as everyone else every single day for the rest of their lives? Not many I'm guessing. So instead, as we see in real world society, there are thousands of different clothing manufacturers, each with their own diverse and unique clothing styles and colours. But we definately can't buy nice unique brand name clothing for a "buck or two." So you see, diversity is costly, but necessary. How does this lesson in Economics 101 relate? Well, today I was driving to work, and because of the World Cup, I saw tons and tons of different cars around downtown Toronto with different countries' flags on the cars. Toronto (and Canada) has always been viewed as one of the most multicultural and diverse cities (countries) in the world. Costly?! Oh yes! Think of all the conflicts that have resulted as new immigrants moving in. The Natives unjustly "robbed" of land. The French robbed of their culture. Or even an example more close to home? Anyone remember when the beloved Cullen Barns (a more "white" store with arts, crafts and some really good apple pie, among other neat things) became converted into present day Market Village/Pacific Mall? There were debates, newspaper articles, council meetings and all this controversy over the loss of land and culture. Diversity is costly. But is it worth it? I was kind of pondering that at work as I drifted in and out of sleep..err I mean boredom. I noticed that my co-workers sitting next to me and that I chill with on breaks and lunch were all different. I sit next to a Filipino girl who's into poetry and jazz on one side and a big white guy who plays hockey on the other. Across from me is a HUGE black guy who talks like Keon Clark and behind me sits a girl from China who plays all sorts of interesting musical instruments. I could go on about the Persian girl down a couple cubicles who travels around the world, or the girl 2 behind me with more piercings and tongue/belly rings than most of my CCF combined, but I think you get the point. Also if I walk 1 min West I'm in Little Italy, 5 mins east and i'm in Chinatown, 5 mins north and I'm in Koreatown. Wow..=) I've been telling Kar that I really want to travel this summer and get a good culture experience somewhere and see the world, but it's already kinda neat how the world has travelled to me. As I think about our interesting and hilarious conversations throughout the day at work and look around me, I thank God for blessing me with a city that boasts such diversity. Let's not get too comfortable with only our Chinese church circle of friends and forget to look around where we live. Is diversity sweet? You betcha. posted by jamescl | 9:35 PM
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Thanks to my buddies for adding colour to my otherwise dull life.