The qathet region needs a bridge, more than one. We need multiple bridges in various places.
The bridge I’m referring to is a metaphor for a way people can connect with other people, even with opposing opinions and values, even core values, and find a small piece of common ground to connect and talk.
I also admit, with my gaze slightly tilted groundward, the title was a cheap idea to gather attention for this article. Hey, you must get creative to survive this post-COVID place we have found ourselves in.
I am not voicing any grievances regarding the recent unpredictable nature of the BC Ferries schedule, mostly due to the borderline catastrophic staffing shortages at the company. The brave new world is just that way; things just are not like they used to be and it seems change is in the way of everything.
Humans have always adapted to many changes in their surroundings. There is always the kayak option to Vancouver for a night at the symphony, a concert or a Vancouver Canucks’ game.
In all seriousness, this is a time which seems particularly fragmented and angry in a visceral sense. Respectfully listening to another person’s viewpoint then making a strong counterpoint seems to be an extinct form of social exchange.
Strangely, volume seems to be important when debating opposing outlooks. The higher the decibel level, the more merit the idea has. For example, truckers in Ottawa blasting their horns 24/7. Seething hot anger is a dangerous place to initiate debate on impactful issues of the day.
Transgenerational bridges need to be constructed in order to create dialogue between generations. Technology is changing at an accelerated speed. A situation which inevitably leaves people, usually of an older generation, behind, as casualties of rapid, technology-based social change.
Young tech savvy people can teach the older folks about Instagram and Bitcoin and, in return, younger people can benefit from a plentiful amount of stories and wisdom from their elders.
The exchange would be mutually symbiotic in the most socially cohesive way. Fair trade in the truest sense.
The housing crisis can be addressed at the same time with a bridge to instil a housing cohabitation between generations. Young people right now have an impossible task of finding affordable housing while in school or at work. Curing the disease of loneliness in older people would be a wondrous side-effect of the exchange.
These programs exist in European countries, for example, such as the Netherlands. The bartering of livable housing for the young and helpful friendship for the old is a positive side-effect of constructive social bridge building.
As far as a physical bridge of some sort as an answer to the continuous difficulties of our ferry system? I think the qathet region is better off being island-like and a place difficult to travel to.
Robert Skender is a qathet region freelance writer and health commentator.
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