Hey everyone,
Clark Levykh here, age 25, living currently in Vancouver Canada. Part of my story is that I definitely don’t feel that I belong anywhere in Canada, I’ve been right across this country and most of the people (from my experience) are VERY anti-social and egotistical, it’s absolutely horrendous. In fact, the police officers at Winnepeg Airport told me that Winnepeg is a mean city and to get out ASAP. After travelling a lot and being physically tortured, when I came back to Canada I was homeless on arrival, with no supports, no help, almost nobody caring, people not believing me (like I have to show evidence in order to get help, completely crazy), and everywhere I went in western Canada, seeing people scratching their butts and genitals in public, very very egotistical and anti-social behaviour, the exact (and I mean exact) opposite of what I saw in Geneve Suisse.
I really feel that North America has become a living prison, with a military police state (the US), and a country slowly becoming an authoritarian police state (Canada). Most people here don’t have a passport, have absolutely no idea what the rest of the world is like, and act as if they’re better than everyone else. How many times have I heard people on the bus and streets say they don’t care about other eople, not to mention media outlets? This is a moral and cultural wasteland, a desert made into an empire, a place devoid of soul and spirit and freedom.
This and lots lots more, is what I plan to talk about at a community summit happening from Sept 18-23 at Simon Fraser University Vancouver campus:
“It’s here! On September 18 – 23rd – the SFU Public Square is hosting its inaugural Community Summit Alone Together: Connecting in the City in partnership with the Vancouver Foundation, and with support from our community summit partners Vancity, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Sun.
The Community Summit events are designed to explore civic isolation and disconnection in the cities of Metro Vancouver, and consider how we can come together to strengthen engagement and connection across community and cultural ties. Please join the conversation and attend one or many of our events!”
See more @ http://www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/community-summit/summit-events.htmlÂ
I haven’t been able to find community here in Metro Vancouver, in fact in most of this country. I was only in Geneve for 13 days, so it may be that upon arriving to live there for a while that things may not go so well, but from what I’ve heard Switzerland and Geneve are great places for meeting people, and exploring the outdoors. At the end of this month I will be starting a business, continuing my schedule of monthly travelling, and overall working on getting things together to leave Canada for the long-term for Europe, starting with Suisse.
Starting a business to pay off debts (I’m on Disability Benefits from the provincial government so $650 that I owe them – security deposits for places that are loans, $2050 to the federal government in Ottawa for them paying for repatriation from Israel last year + finanical assistance in Geneve (a loan that I have to pay off believe it or not!), get off of goverment welfare forever + get out of poverty, do long-term wandering and travelling across Europe, and getting invloved in child sponsorship and philantropy. These are some of my goals for the next 12 months. I am also considering moving to the Cayman Islands at the end of the month (I can land there without a passport, government-issued photo ID + birth certificate is required), if things go south over here even more with accomodation and the social climate.