Renoviction

There is a little bubble of talk on Canada's screen right now about happiness. UBC's Global Happiness expert, John Helliwell is quoted in this Saturday's Globe and Mail as saying that “happiness is very local. . .things like, 'Do you trust your neighbours or your company? Do you have confidence in the police?'”. In their responses to a survey question about happiness, most respondents quoted in the Globe, talked about common places and mundane family activities. Chantal Kreviazuk, for example, mentions “cooking with fresh produce from the Wednesday market” and other such simple pleasures.

In other news, New Westminster tenants are victims once again, of a crime called renoviction- the neglect of basic maintenance by landlords which eventually leads to tenants' eviction because of the necessity of renovation. This kind of behaviour sounds like exactly the kind of thing which does not foster happiness.

I would like to live in a world in which the people who have the power to make decisions which affect all of our lives do so with humility. I would also like to live in a world in which regular people know that they have a right to a satisfying experience of public space and where they feel empowered to participate in the making of it.