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Hotel Balmoral, Vancouver.

 

I felt weird bringing out my camera and snapping shots of this oddly compelling sign. Underneath it homeless people queued up in two differents lines - one to recieve a bowl of soup and some bread served out of the back of a truck, the other for the chance to pick a choice among shirts, jackets and pants.

 

And there I was, someone with good fortune enough to having come from across the planet and now taking pictures of a worn down hotel sign. People have told me that there is no point in thinking about the structures in society that ramps up social injustice. Maybe they are right. Then again, I really don´t want to wake up one morning and feel that I don´t care and, more importantly, can´t play a part (however small) in changing this.

 

Anyway, after this I walked back to the hotel and took a cab out to the airport. It was a pleasant drive, the driver of Indian descent was very chatty and we discussed everything from his family that was spread out across the planet to the ongoing project of giving people in India social security numbers (talk about a behemoth project). When I told him where I was from he got quiet for a second and then asked me if it was true that the sun never rise in Sweden during the winter.

 

I told him that it wasn´t completely true, but that it sometimes sure felt like that. When exiting the car he brought me my bags and deadpanned "well, back to the darkness you go" to which I replied:

 

"Yes, then again - in the summer the sun never go down so I shouldn´t really complain."

 

He smiled, told me his shift was over and drove off.

Done