First house party

All dressed up, first invite to a house party since moving East – Old Government House, the New Brunswick’s Lieutenant-Governor’s residence. I run by the place all the time, stately on prime real estate by the Saint John riverbank (shame about the homeless tent city by the shoreline though), never thought I’d actually ever get to set foot inside. But every year the Lieutenant-Governor invites the city police over for the annual awards and presentations ceremony – another little perk you get for the coincidence of working in the provincial capital!

A nice personal touch for the 2009 edition: we’ve just got a new man in the house, Graydon Nicholas. Short, soft-spoken, smiling friendly man; he kind of reminds me of my father. Which is kind of what you want in your Lieutenants-Governor and Governors-General: a sort of detached, distinguished, parental figure to look up to, to offer guidance and oversight over the adolescent shenanigans politicians and the rest of society sometimes get up to. More to the point, he’s a former provincial court judge – with first hand knowledge and experience with the police force behind the bench, an especially appropriate man to have for the night’s ceremony.

At events like this it’s one thing to have someone in office deliver canned speeches in tribute to your job and your organisation; but when they actually have a story to tell, it means a bit more: back in his judging days, his Honour was just on his way to fly out somewheres at the airport. Two cops were sprinting at him as he was at the gate. Panic – just like anyone else, the sight of police running at you full-tilt makes your stomach turn and heart stop. “What did I do?” Out of breath, the cops rolled up, yelled out and drew their… search warrant, for his Honour to sign. “Phew, I thought I was in trouble!”

(My father tells silly stories like that too.)

JI, KY and OK all brought their significant others. I imagine it’s an amazing feeling to have a missus to share fancy dress ceremonies like this. Not just because it’s just inherently neat to say you’re on a date out to the Lieutenant-Governor’s, and it’s special to be all dressed-up together, but because it reminds you of what’s at stake when you put on the uniform. As a couple, you’re really in it together. Though it’s one of you on the beat, as a couple you share the call to duty, the risks and dangers. Rightfully so, with events like this you get to share the pomp and circumstance too.

“You’re going to have to stop coming to these things alone,” OK tells me. “You have to get your uniforms working for you!” Meh… you see what I have to work with, right? I’m doing the best I can! “Is this all you guys do – dress up?” went Mrs OK – really, with Basic Training still going on, all us new volunteers have done much so far is dress-up ceremonies like the swearing in at the courthouse, the Remembrance Day parade, and now this shindig at Old Government House. “Not that I’m complaining!”, hugging OK and his flashy new bling – the coveted crossed-pistols marksman’s patch.

Silently envious – both for the patch, and a significant other to hug. [sigh] Damn my crappy eyesight and my singleness! [shaking fist]

The Chief read out some of the citations for the year’s Silver Commendations: a nick-of-time grab of a lady trying to jump off the Westmorland St bridge; a head-first split-second dive after a car that’d just driven into the Saint John River; a quick-thinking finger-in-the-dike save of a man who’d managed to slash his brachial artery with a cleaver. It’s reassuring, especially if you’re new to a city, and to a police force, to see that police heroics here centre not on things like shootouts and takedowns, but what the caring profession’s all about – and it is a caring profession, at the end of the day – helping people at their most vulnerable.

I got interviewed by the newspaper at the ceremony: “Why did you want to join the Police Auxiliary?” I think I managed to mumble something about how the call to policing isn’t all that different than the call to medicine: that old cliché, “To help people.” In medicine, you realise that the poor and disadvantaged bear the brunt of illness in society – three-quarters of the cost of illness in society is borne by the lowest 25%. Same thing with crime – 75% of crime affects those in the poorest quarter of society. So you get into medicine, and the police, not just to help “people”, but especially the ones who need it most. I thought it kind of made sense, the reporter at least nodded and smiled.

I also think I said something like And being a new immigrant to Fredericton just a few months, there’s probably no better way to get to know the city, the people, the streets, through the eyes of a police officer on the beat. In this uniform you meet so much of the community you wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Warts and all, you know the place inside out. She still seemed to follow, and jumped on the immigrant part of that: “How does it make you feel, being a representative of a visible minority, working in the community?”

It’s funny, questions like that. It’s not “racist”, of course, simply to bring up race in a question (the reporter was herself a “visible minority”), and the intentions are good, no doubt, about showing interest into the “minority experience”. But at the same time, they reinforce the idea that there is such thing as a “minority experience”, distinct from the experience of a regular Joe Frederictoner or New Brunswicker. That, whatever my experience is Being In This Place – a doctor, an auxiliary constable, a student, a shopper, a tourist, a cyclist, a protester, a friend, a boyfriend (well, one can dream), whatever – I’ll also always have that unshakeable label, “visible minority”.

So I think this is where I lost her: Well, in the uniform I think of myself simply as an Auxiliary Police Constable, not as an “Asian” Auxiliary Police Constable. And I hope the public will see me that way too, someone in uniform and in service to help. When people turn to the Police, they don’t think about things like “is the police officer white or Asian” or whatever, they just ask to be Served and Protected as they need to be. It’s not a question of race; it all comes down to professionalism. That’s when she said “Thanks” and went off to the next guy.

I guess I blew a chance to talk about some of those multicultural ideals they used to bring up in Canadian Studies: proportional representation of minorities, integration of cultures into traditionally “conservative” institutions like the police, the need for citizens to “see themselves” in the public services they use and fund. And it’s too bad, because I was just reading about CS and the idea of identity on Schema. I could’ve been all over that question and had the chance to “represent”. Oh well.

Maybe if I wasn’t able to actually talk the talk about multiculturalism, at least I’ll be able to walk the walk when I’m out there, in uniform, being an auxiliary constable – and Asian.

Papers, please

Just in time for the summer – and the new identification rules to get into the United States – picked up my new Special passport yesterday. Green cover, and it’s a bit thicker and heavier than the regular blue passport: not just the gravitas of being On Her Majesty’s Service ;) , but it’s got double the pages (48), and hidden somewhere in the cover, one of those high-tech new radio-frequency electronic chips!

The info guide says it’s only detectable within 10cm of a properly-encoded reader, and for extra protection some of the data can only be picked up if the passport is open, and the machine-readable area (the bits at the bottom with the “>>>” characters) is scanned by a regular optical reader. The guide also says not only to safeguard it like a regular passport, but also clean, dry and unbent, like an “electronic device”.

There’s also a special note on the observation page that, even though the passport’s valid for five years, if you’re not actually on duty anymore you shouldn’t be using it, and have to return it to the Passport Office forthwith. So you can’t just use it instead of coughing up 87$ for a regular blue one to use for international trekking and backpacking that’s not at Her Majesty’s pleasure – sorry, no freebies here.

Despite all the high-tech measures, it’s still got all the classic essentials of a passport: on the front cover, the Canadian coat of arms, and on the reverse, a scripted request from the Minister for Foreign Affairs (and perhaps International Trade, depending on what the department wants to call itself at the time) in the name of Her Majesty for free passage “without let or hindrance” and “such protection and assistance as may be necessary”

And, most classic of all: an actual embossed stamp! You can just feel the official-ness with your fingertips

Passports are pretty neat. Last time I was at the Foreign Affairs and International Trade headquarters – “Fort Pearson” – there was a display of passports through the ages. The first one ever was just a regular letter-sized slip of paper with a note to the effect of what’s still on the inside-front cover today. English Royal seal at the top – the Canadian-ness only indicated by the “Passport, Canada”. (“Passport – by the way, Canadian.”) No photo of the bearer – just a name, their job, where they live, and a signature

Official Canadian Bilingualism (at least for the fields, not necessarily for the entries) and descriptors beyond job came along by 1922. Photos too, though it doesn’t look like there was a designated spot on the page for it, it was kind of just glued on in a convenient space on page 3. A bit more secure, but not quite the same standard expressionless mugshots you have to use now though

By the ’30s, things were looking a bit more official. Still had employment as the number-one descriptor, the language of entries were still at the whim of the passport clerk, and the separate “Wife-Femme” column suggests only men would be allowed to hold passports (unless there was a women’s edition they just didn’t have on display I didn’t see). But now there’s at least a proper space for the photo

Foreign Affairs and International Trade (or whatever it is calling itself nowadays) saves the most convenient documents for themselves though: simple credit card-sized IDs you can keep in your wallet, no booklets to forget or misplace

Who knows, maybe booklet passports will go the same way too. Visas and stamps replaced with electronic “permission” tags added to your chip as you cross the border. You won’t even have to show your card anymore – you’d just walk up, and as you approach the radio-frequency reader it would “stamp” the chip, and you’re set! No more lines to queue through, no more cold sweats standing in the immigration line as you hear your flight being called for boarding

Yet there is still something irreplaceable about the passport. It’s the tangible, legal expression of nationality; anyone can tack a flag on their backpack, but a passport – you need at least two years of permanent residence, a guarantor to vouch for your identity, and 87$ for that. People move, marry, invest in other countries just to get one; it’s what you wave at the embassy gates when you need help in a foreign land. At the airport you can’t help but peek at what documents people have in hand – colours of almost 200 nations distilled into blue, red, green or black with gold-embossed coats of arms

And, of course, the stamps. You can Photoshop yourself onto the Eiffel Tower or the Great Wall, and mail-order Andean sweaters and handfuls of Sahara sand – but you haven’t really been anywhere unless you’ve got a stamp to prove it

Looking forward to stamping the crap out of the new passport this summer!

Round and round, to the edge of town

Bus terminals are fixtures of Downtowns across Canada’s cities. Without fail, you can travel from coast-to-coast and manage to see what every city has to offer the moment you step off the coach. Wherever you are, arriving and departing from Downtown you’re guaranteed a first impression and last look to remember.

There’s Victoria’s, steps from the Inner Harbour, across the street from the Royal BC Museum, and kitty-corner from the Legislature

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Vancouver’s is co-located with the train station – fantastic ambience, and easy access to the Skytrain

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Edmonton’s is just at the edge of Downtown

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and so is Calgary’s

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Saskatoon’s is within a block of the city transit interchange

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and Regina’s across from the Casino – chance to cash in on a quick stopover

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Winnipeg’s brings you within spitting distance of Portage and Main

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while Toronto’s gets you right into the thick of the action at Dundas Square

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Ottawa’s is a bit of a hike from Downtown, but at least Bank St is entertaining as you head uptown

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Montreal’s drops you off in the middle of the Village

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and Halifax’s train/bus station, like Vancouver’s, makes for classic arrivals and farewells like you see in the movies

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It’s not just about giving travellers an attractive welcome to the community; nor is it just about making life convenient for rural commuters from the area to work Downtown; or promoting environmentally-friendly public transport by making it more attractive or useful; or supporting financially-conscious passengers like students who can’t afford hidden costs like taxi transfers to inconvenient stations.

Downtown terminals are part of what distinguishes destinations and places to be, from mere waystations you can’t wait to move on from. Even if it’s not your destination, city planners know that if you get a good impression of the place as you pass through and stop over, you’ll probably at least get off, look around – and spend – and maybe even want to come back. More importantly, you won’t think of the place as just another crappy highway backwater stop between real cities.

Since bus travellers truly are a “captive audience” as they cross the country, bus terminals are a fantastic opportunity for vibrant, desirable cities to establish and maintain their positive vibe. Comparison and competition between communities is inevitable when you’re on the bus – you see them all. Even moreso than airports – aircraft on hub-and-spoke routes cast all the attention to the big three (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal); but bus terminals are where every Canadian city has a chance to make an impression.

Fredericton, however, is looking to lose its textbook-perfect Downtown bus terminal – with all the convenience, aesthetic appeal and tourist/traveller services like restaurants and cafés (ie, opportunities to spend money in the local economy) that comes with a Downtown location

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in favour of a middle-of-nowhere rental space at 150 Woodside Ln – with all the convenience, aesthetic appeal and services that come with a highway pullout (ie, none of the above)

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According to CBC Radio, taxi fare to the proposed site could run around 20$ or so depending on where you’re coming from. Seeing as how the bus fare to, say, Halifax is only 67$ (57$ for students and over 60s), that’s not just a minor inconvenience – you’re making travel 25-30% more expensive, just like that.

It’s not the bus company’s fault – after twenty years at Regent and King, they “would love to be downtown, but we just can’t find accommodations” since their landlord ended their lease this April. There is the abandoned train station site that would be perfect – walkable to Downtown, lots of open area, maybe an opportunity to get that same ambience as Vancouver and Halifax – and even the Planning Advisory Committee says it “might be expensive to redevelop, but it would be a choice location”.

I don’t know what’s stopping the City of Fredericton from coming up with a solution, intervening and making it happen. It could offer a loan, mediate with the current landlord, buy the land itself and operate a city-owned terminal (just like an airport), or even pull off a land-swap trade deal as it has before to secure the space – maybe another business that doesn’t really need to be Downtown would sell or exchange for a more appropriate plot the City might happen to own already.

Hopefully there’ll be some public outcry about this – too bad it’s come up just when a big chunk of the terminal’s primary users (ie university students) are all away for the holidays. (Hmm, coincidence?) It’s not just about making life convenient for us residents – but promoting a positive image and leaving a good impression with our visitors, and providing facilities you’d expect from a Capital City.

Seriously, a middle-of-nowhere highway pullout – “Welcome to Fredericton”? Definitely not what a city should be.

Baseball on Valium

I’ve never thought of cricket as a particularly “spontaneous” sport. Unlike something like hockey, where more often than not all of your buddies own a stick and ball/puck and you can just meet up at any random driveway or side-street and pick up a game. But not so much cricket.

The first time I saw people playing cricket – live, amateur, just for fun – was in Singapore on the greens near the Esplanade. Everyone in white shirts and shorts, the lawn perfectly manicured – much too well-organised to be a pick-up kind of game

The first time I saw it in Canada was pretty much the same – on the tended grass of Stanley Park in Vancouver, looking all professional-like

But passing the Wolseley warehouse near Fredericton’s Crosstown trail last week – I guess you can play pick-up cricket after all

Not quite a regulation 22 yards, but does the trick

And dropping the white “uniform” makes it a lot less pretentious too

I’ve never seen pick-up cricket anywhere else in Canada yet. Maybe it’s a Fredericton thing.

The sailor’s new clothes

The Navy released some photos of the new Naval Combat Dress last week. It’s the flame-retardant working blue/black uniform usually worn on ships and naval bases, so they’re not as commonly in the public eye as the fancy high-tech digital green or desert camouflage gear as seen on TV from Afghanistan and such, or the traditional dark double-breasted suit you see in official photos and parades. (And the pictures parents always like to take too.)

Since I work on an Army base I actually wear the relish-suit everyday myself, but being Navy I was looking forward to what the Naval Improved Clothing and Equipment project – NICE! – was going to come up with. The Army’s equivalent Clothe the Soldier programme prompted a quantum leap from the 50s-era olive drab solid colour combat gear to what you see now, so there was a lot of anticipation for what NICE would propose.

Some before pictures

Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces

In Uniforms: Why We Are What We Wear, historian (and WW2 American infantry Second Lieutenant) Paul Fussell describes the ideal everyday military uniform

Those who have worn military uniform know how it feels when constrasted to civilian clothes. I’m not talking about the glory of full-dress uniform, white gloves and all, but what is sometimes called “walking-out kit”, the way you’d dress leaving the post for the evening… [This is now simply what you wear at work - no need to change before or after.] It is crucial the jacket fit snugly, with shoulders emphasised by straps or epaulets with a crimped-in waist. The trousers must fit closely, with, of course, no pleats, it being a precious military myth that no soldier is even slightly obese and thus is in need of such waist camouflage.

The shape delineated by the uniform is that of an ideal combatant – athletic, obedient, wonderfully self-controlled, tightly-focused, with no looseness or indication of comfort about him.

So… the sailor’s new clothes

Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces

Actually the only thing new I can pick out is the jacket: different cut and collar, Canadian flag flap on the left shoulder, different pockets, and replacing the traditional ship’s patch and name tag on the right, a name tag with “Navy (maple leaf) Marine”. Underneath the changes are subtle – the blue shirt looks pretty much the same, but now with a black T-shirt underneath, with new police-style perma-crease cargoes and boots with white thread highlights.

Reaction seems negative: “The new NCD’s in the posted picture actually kinda look sloppy IMO”… “That Navy / Marine name tape is unfortunate”… “kinda looks like the security guard at polo park mall”… “white stitching on the boots make them look like some sort of bowling shoes”… “The shirt is the worst part of the whole thing. I always feel like a postal worker when I wear NCDs. I am convinced that the bureaucrats in Ottawa are conspiring to make us look as silly as possible!”… “they do look extremely sloppy and in my own humble opinion, are worn sloppy by way too many. The new NCD – not impressive at all. I have always been a firm beleiver that something as trivial as optics always plays an important role in military life. Looking like a bag of slop is just bad form”…

I think the biggest loss is the ship’s patch – the Army has its regiments, the Air Force its squadrons, all with their traditions and imagery. Losing that on the uniform to a generic “Navy – Marine” seems a shame; especially in default Arial font, makes it look like any civilian company name-embroidered custom-wear windbreaker – mall security guard was mentioned.

But that said, it doesn’t look all that different from some other Navies in the world. Maybe it’s tradition, following the Royal Navy: other than the name tag (on navy work clothes, Canadians put it on the right like the other uniforms), they’re almost identical in the postal blue shirt and pants – similar issues with shirts easily going crumpled and untucked and thus potentially sloppy-looking when doing anything remotely strenuous

Royal Navy

Royal Navy

Instead of blue tops and black bottoms, the Singapore Navy goes all black for a professional military appearance, but with reflective stripes for visibility, a ship’s crest for team spirit, and a removable flag for field work. A one-piece coverall – nothing to get untucked or fall out, and easy to strip off when heat and confined spaces make skivvies more appropriate working gear (and back on when emergencies or impromptu inspections threaten)

Republic of Singapore Navy

Republic of Singapore Navy

The American Navy is actually switching from a blue shirt/pants or blue coverall uniform

Wikipedia

to an Army camouflage-style digital pattern, except in shades of blue – no it’s not so the enemy can’t spot the sailors hiding against a marine background (whilst aboard their big gray ship?), but because wrinkles and oil and grease spills (common occupational hazards) don’t stain and show up as badly (and permanently) as on solid colours

US Navy

Obviously I haven’t tracked down every naval uniform out there, but the new Australian Navy uniform is hard to beat, probably the best designed set up of all

Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

For visibility, there’s reflective stripes like the Singaporean coveralls; two-piece for mobility, but designed to go untucked for ventilation, so no issues with shirt flaps going sloppy; light-gray dominant colour to stay cool under the sun; removable ship and unit patches; camouflage to appear clean, and since it’s also designed for intervention and boarding teams, the obvious “military” look is essential to the job – and what’s more, like the digital CADPAT pattern being distinctly Canadian, the rounded AUSCAM blotches are signature Australian.

As mentioned on army.ca, “Take the most common paint and grease stain colours found aboard ship and digitize them into a pixelated camouflage pattern. For a Canadian Naval camouflage pattern, you could call it either NAVPAT, or CADPAT-N/M (Navy/Marine).” Don’t know if that necessarily means a perfect “athletic, obedient, wonderfully self-controlled, tightly-focused, with no looseness or indication of comfort” design, but if it works for Australia, could work for us too!

I’d wear it, anyway.