Just a little off the top please

Going to Tony's Barber Shop is always an adventure awaiting. You never know what insult will be hurled or what interesting conversation might be had. The very first time I wandered in there I sat listening as "Tony" berated everyone he knew that managed to walk in that morning. This guy for being a Newf and that guy for having thew audacity to wait an extra week in between haircuts. I held the newspaper up to cover my smiling face and silently wished I would be next. Like Norm at the bar in Cheers, I may have found my place that I could finally get a haircut and actually enjoy it again. Sadly time does not always permit the leisure of going to Tony's but I have managed to go there a few times in a row now.

So there I found myself on Friday. Just getting into a "discussion" about the train wreck known as the Drumph presidency when I was called to the comfortable leather clad chair. Warm wood wrapped around the perimeter of the room, old photographs and memorabilia dotted the shelving and of course the scissor waving barbers we're plying their trade. Alas, "Tony" was busy with a young lad and I was seated with a Slavic looking fellow. My suspicion was instantly affirmed when he spoke, certainly from the home country or near by. Turns out he was from Macedonia, and Skopje to be exact. When he found out that my family hailed from the former Yugoslavia I was one of the club...despite my horrible lack of language skills I was as close as he could have that day for a compatriot.

As the snipping and trimming began he made small talk, which as you may know, annoys me a tad. So I leapt in and asked him, with Europe so close, why would he make the journey to Canada instead of say Germany or France or wherever in Europe, surely the opportunities were there as well. I was surprised by the answer, although maybe I shouldn't have been. Racism came the reply. If it wasn't for the fact that he had his clippers on me I would have let my head drop in disgust.What came next was a young mans view of what ails that part of the world.

We've all heard of the backlash against asylum seekers from the Middle East but I found it strange that this would be the case from what would seem naturally allied countries. Why would the German people or the Dutch refuse entry or make it difficult for the Macedonians, Polish, or Albanians to join their society? Resistance to change and scapegoating mask the fact that people just seem incapable of letting go past hatred. Be it based on religion or skin colour, heritage or past slights, perceived or real, isolationism is running rampant and it doesn't look good for the world at large.

Instead of taking a train to any number of countries where he might have even had a support system to fall back on, he ended up on the streets of Toronto sleeping the subway stations for two days until finding refuge. Crazy or what? Somehow he found his way to Halifax and after a three year forced exile from Canada he is now here as a landed immigrant, working his way towards to citizenship. I've said it before, I don't think I could uproot my life in that way in the hope of finding a better future...simply the hope. While his country debates toilets and the sewage system he's here looking for a better way to build a new life. Crazy ass world we live in.

Which brings us to the damn point....I feel like maybe we are starting to forget the past...and I think it will be to all our detriment. Ism's are arising all over the place and it's scary to see the similarities between the orange turd and Hitler... the whole doomed to repeat it thing comes to mind here. I don't think it really matters what the powers to be are using as a wedge these days, religion is an obvious choice as is skin colour, what is important is the fact that it's happening in greater numbers and one gets the feeling that the forces of darkness are playing a new kind of game. Or maybe an old game brought back and shined up for the new era. Fake media, enemies of the state, dissent is shouted down...historians will tell you this isn't new. And it should scare the bejesus out of us all.

I don't know what else to say other than keep resisting....look for truth, don't follow the herd and think above all else. Those fuckers can't succeed without tacit approval, in the form of a deafening silence, coming from the majority. And they are fuckers...every throat punch worthy ass hat and douche bag that seeks their own well being while stepping on others.

A simple haircut eh? And I'm not sure if I liked the cut either.

Ciao

P.S.

I go in for eye surgery on Tuesday....where I will literally be subjected to having a needle stuck in my eye while I am awake. I warned the doctor he might get kicked.