Saturday, October 02, 2004
California Dreaming 3
San Francisco, day 3
The city is awash with angry noises today. Hotel workers are protesting the ? reduction / removal of their health benefits, and every few blocks angry mobs of orientals and filipinos (sp?) march, holding their placards aloft and sounding their foghorns / whistles / banging on their pails. Vehicles are driving by and honking their horns in support.
It's... amazing.
I probably shouldn't write subversive crap like this, I'm sure I'm already a marked man... but these guys have their own union - the cooks, the cleaners, the bellboys - and they have their say. Whether or not their managements will do anything about it is another issue - but they're getting to make their stand clear, and their presence felt -- and the public is responding to them too. The faceless people who make your beds and prepare the snacks you call for room service for.
I can't help but shake my head in wonder... considering that the last of the unions was recently made illegal back in Singapore (the pilot fiasco, resulting in the chairman of the union being exiled from the country... or rather, having his permanent residency revoked). This is real life, outside of the bubble.
It might be loud, and noisy, and even vaguely frightening to some (not to me thuogh, having lived in london, and seen LA. In fact I have to laugh at the way these guys have moved certain vital hotel equipment outside into the street - coffee makers, tables and snack desks - and some of the protestors have turned it into a carnival of sorts, dancing in snake chains rather than marching) but this is... humanity.
Hotel staff stand by with embarrassed looks on their faces, and tourists look pissed off... I suppose their luxurious sleep-ins in their queensize beds have been cruelly cut-short by these damn slaves protesting their lack of healthcare which they're clearly not entitled to (tongue in cheek). And policement cruise by grinning (some I suspect probably honk too).
It's grey and misty today in San Francisco, but this city is still alive, and beautiful.
Even were I to just wander the city aimlessly today, I'd have a great time. But on the cards today, the mission dolores - and tomorrow, yosemite, and on my last day, wine country (hic!)
Yesterday was spent walking across most of the northern waterfront after Alcatraz... starting at pier 39 (wah) and the seals (aww), past ghirardellis (yum) and past Fort Mason (wa.), then past the rotunda at the Exploratorium (wahhh.) and then coming up short at all the expressways which barred further passage to the golden gate bridge (eh?) at sunset. Dinner at the cheap and cheerful chinese place across from my hotel (which served ridiculously large portions of quite good food then snuggled in bed watching the presidential elections which were surprisingly good and had Kerry coming out... the better man. Amazingly. Bush sounded like a rather tired recording (this man is inconsistent! this war needs a commander in chief!... what he's completely missing is that the country needs a commander in chief... because he made the war. and kerry's proposing to try to end that war as quickly as he can. Kerry's stand is that he isn't inconsistent, but rather that he's flexible, and that while he agreed with bush that Iraq was a threat at the time he went to war, he disagreed with the method and the timing... ie the ends do not always justify the means. And bizzarrly, in the battle of two rather wooden puppets, kerry came out the wiser man. There is... a statesman's mind somewhere beneath that bland exterior (or else a good speech writer) who would make a good president. If not a very interesting one. Anyhow, moving quickly away from American politics which are rather egocentric and self-obsessed (we have to LEAD the world? we have to preserve freedom? Pah. bloody imperialists. Bush doesn't seem to realise that holding the line and hunkering down in a nation against the will of it's people isn't liberation - it's occupation. Kerry's for reducing military presence at the oil wells to show Iraqi's that they aim for freedom and a short-stay. Bush is for defending them. Kerry is for bilateral talks with North Korea. Bush believes that talking to the Koreans is exactly what the Koreans want, which will disrupt his six nation alliance against the threat... so dang it he aint gonna give kim jung il what he wants, he's not gonna talk to him before he blows him up. What kind of diplomacy is that, one has to wonder, when a president won't even consider engaging the perceived "enemy" in dialog, because it's what the "enemy" want?). oops. rant rant. anyhow, back to SF.
I can't enthuse about this city enough.
Lessee. Places I've been, on a wah factor from 1 to 10,
London : 5.5 (lots to do)
Colchester : 4
Manchester : 3
Bristol : 3
Newcastle : 4
Edinburg : 6
Loch Ness / Inverness : 7
Indonesia (all of it) : 6.5 (scenic, cultural)
Thailand : 7 (ditto)
Malaysia : 5
Singapore : 4
Brugges : 7 (scenic, lots to eat)
Paris : 6
Heidelberg : 5
switzerland : 8 (beautiful)
LA : -5 (even after factoring in disneyland... but then i didn't go to the grand canyon)
sydney : 9.5 (lots to do, lots to eat, beautiful)
SF : 10
swoon.
I wish I could stay a little longer but I have a feeling my brain would melt. So... back to the city for now.
The city is awash with angry noises today. Hotel workers are protesting the ? reduction / removal of their health benefits, and every few blocks angry mobs of orientals and filipinos (sp?) march, holding their placards aloft and sounding their foghorns / whistles / banging on their pails. Vehicles are driving by and honking their horns in support.
It's... amazing.
I probably shouldn't write subversive crap like this, I'm sure I'm already a marked man... but these guys have their own union - the cooks, the cleaners, the bellboys - and they have their say. Whether or not their managements will do anything about it is another issue - but they're getting to make their stand clear, and their presence felt -- and the public is responding to them too. The faceless people who make your beds and prepare the snacks you call for room service for.
I can't help but shake my head in wonder... considering that the last of the unions was recently made illegal back in Singapore (the pilot fiasco, resulting in the chairman of the union being exiled from the country... or rather, having his permanent residency revoked). This is real life, outside of the bubble.
It might be loud, and noisy, and even vaguely frightening to some (not to me thuogh, having lived in london, and seen LA. In fact I have to laugh at the way these guys have moved certain vital hotel equipment outside into the street - coffee makers, tables and snack desks - and some of the protestors have turned it into a carnival of sorts, dancing in snake chains rather than marching) but this is... humanity.
Hotel staff stand by with embarrassed looks on their faces, and tourists look pissed off... I suppose their luxurious sleep-ins in their queensize beds have been cruelly cut-short by these damn slaves protesting their lack of healthcare which they're clearly not entitled to (tongue in cheek). And policement cruise by grinning (some I suspect probably honk too).
It's grey and misty today in San Francisco, but this city is still alive, and beautiful.
Even were I to just wander the city aimlessly today, I'd have a great time. But on the cards today, the mission dolores - and tomorrow, yosemite, and on my last day, wine country (hic!)
Yesterday was spent walking across most of the northern waterfront after Alcatraz... starting at pier 39 (wah) and the seals (aww), past ghirardellis (yum) and past Fort Mason (wa.), then past the rotunda at the Exploratorium (wahhh.) and then coming up short at all the expressways which barred further passage to the golden gate bridge (eh?) at sunset. Dinner at the cheap and cheerful chinese place across from my hotel (which served ridiculously large portions of quite good food then snuggled in bed watching the presidential elections which were surprisingly good and had Kerry coming out... the better man. Amazingly. Bush sounded like a rather tired recording (this man is inconsistent! this war needs a commander in chief!... what he's completely missing is that the country needs a commander in chief... because he made the war. and kerry's proposing to try to end that war as quickly as he can. Kerry's stand is that he isn't inconsistent, but rather that he's flexible, and that while he agreed with bush that Iraq was a threat at the time he went to war, he disagreed with the method and the timing... ie the ends do not always justify the means. And bizzarrly, in the battle of two rather wooden puppets, kerry came out the wiser man. There is... a statesman's mind somewhere beneath that bland exterior (or else a good speech writer) who would make a good president. If not a very interesting one. Anyhow, moving quickly away from American politics which are rather egocentric and self-obsessed (we have to LEAD the world? we have to preserve freedom? Pah. bloody imperialists. Bush doesn't seem to realise that holding the line and hunkering down in a nation against the will of it's people isn't liberation - it's occupation. Kerry's for reducing military presence at the oil wells to show Iraqi's that they aim for freedom and a short-stay. Bush is for defending them. Kerry is for bilateral talks with North Korea. Bush believes that talking to the Koreans is exactly what the Koreans want, which will disrupt his six nation alliance against the threat... so dang it he aint gonna give kim jung il what he wants, he's not gonna talk to him before he blows him up. What kind of diplomacy is that, one has to wonder, when a president won't even consider engaging the perceived "enemy" in dialog, because it's what the "enemy" want?). oops. rant rant. anyhow, back to SF.
I can't enthuse about this city enough.
Lessee. Places I've been, on a wah factor from 1 to 10,
London : 5.5 (lots to do)
Colchester : 4
Manchester : 3
Bristol : 3
Newcastle : 4
Edinburg : 6
Loch Ness / Inverness : 7
Indonesia (all of it) : 6.5 (scenic, cultural)
Thailand : 7 (ditto)
Malaysia : 5
Singapore : 4
Brugges : 7 (scenic, lots to eat)
Paris : 6
Heidelberg : 5
switzerland : 8 (beautiful)
LA : -5 (even after factoring in disneyland... but then i didn't go to the grand canyon)
sydney : 9.5 (lots to do, lots to eat, beautiful)
SF : 10
swoon.
I wish I could stay a little longer but I have a feeling my brain would melt. So... back to the city for now.
