Those Bloody Christians...

I'm not sure if you all know who Ian Wright is, but I have been a big fan of his for a while. Anyway, he's the original guide for the Pilot Productions show called Lonely Planet and now called Globe Trekker on OLN. He's been doing his job for about 13 years now and I think I've been a fan for about ten of those years.

As I was driving home on Friday night I saw a sign in front of a travel store in Calgary. It said "Ian Wright LIVE" at MacKewan Hall at the U of Calgary. I wanted to stop and see about tickets but I was already barrelling up 14th with a fully loaded trailer with two tractors so I figured I would just look it up online. Anyway, I wasn't sure I would have the time to go, but as it turned out we got a freak snowfall here in Calgary, so I had time off!

So after work and a haircut on Monday I headed into town hoping that there were still tickets, which there were. Which I was happy about because I had already commited to paying 6 bucks for parking. But I was a little miffed that I paid 4 bucks for the convenience of walking to the ticket window and handing them the money. The same as I would have if I had reserved them online. Its amazing how some companies choose to do disingenuous* things and expect you to understand, when they could just raise the price and say tough. Like Telus charging an access fee...

Anyway... Ian Wright comes on at 8pm, well 8:15. And he is hilarious. About 6oo people have showed up to see the guy and he has us all in stitches. It seems everyone in the audience is a travel nut or plans to be. He shows pictures and tells stories and more than just whats on the show. For about two hours I am thinking this is awesome and its amazing how this all worked out. He ends the show part and starts taking questions, people begin to leave because its already about 10:30, I stayed and there's only about 150 left. People are asking questions and he's being polite in answering and telling more stories. Then some lady asks "In your travels what would say is the greatest negative impact of Western Culture?" He pauses for half a second and then he says,"Those bloody Christians... their everywhere." He goes on, "I would say religion in general, its just caused so much damage." "And Coca-Cola. And rich kids trying to blend in with locals by hageling poor people in the markets." I'll have to say I was stunned. I wasn't angry until a group people in the front rows began to clap. They began to clap right after is first comments.

I thought about it... I thought about stepping up to the open microphone and asking why he had said that. It seemed odd. If he had said 'the problem with world is those bloody Muslims' he'd be in the paper and run out of town. Or if he had said those 'Israelis', but his anger burns against Christians. I felt like I had been transported to the story of the White Rose when a speaker might have said something at a University about the Jews and the enlightened front rows might have applauded in the same way.

Well I didn't go to the mic and I didn't wait for an autograph. I went to my car and started to drive. Paul Simon song lyrics popped in my head:

A man walks down the street

He says why am I short of attention

Got a short little span of attention

And wo my nights are so long

Where's my wife and family

What if I die here

Who'll be my role-model

Now that my role-model is

Gone Gone

He ducked back down the alley

With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl

All along along

There were incidents and accidents

There were hints and allegations

Its a pretty sad thing to have your bubble burst.

But then I thought about it. He's been in about 80 countries and most of these countries are becoming popular tourist destinations and before he gets there, there's those bloody Christians. Sure... people have done enough damage in the name of Christ to encite a person who has seen it from the outside to think that all Christians are the same. I guess its been a while since I felt like a minority. I'm not sure how to finish this off so...

(Disingenuous: synonymous with generally brown material associated with male cattle)