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Black and white rock
This letter is in response to Mimi's letter from the last issue ["R 'n' r racial divide"]. I absolutely agree that white people have been doing a great service for us simple black folk. Thanks to Pat Metheny for superior jazz salvation. Thanks to Dick Clark for the sanitation of black rock 'n' roll. Thanks to British bands for bringing aged bluesmen into the spotlight ('cuz who wants to play for a black audience, anyway?). Thanks to Red Hot Chili Peppers for superior funk. Thanks to Vanilla Ice for his dope rhymes. Thanks. Thanks to people like Mimi.
Without her, we'd still be in the cotton fields. You're the best. You really have done our music a great service. That's probably why we leave it when you destroy it--out of respect. If you really want to know what white exploitation has done to rock 'n' roll, check out movies like Hairspray or Twist. Listen to the real R&B, rock 'n' roll, gospel and soul. Leave your ignorant, racist bullshit at home. Let me guess... Mimi has something to do with whatever show she ended up promoting in her letter. Thanks for your "support."
-- Hall
Green history
As a former executive member of the Green Party of Quebec, I found several errors in your article on the rebirth of that party ["Greens sprout anew," May 31]. George Maddux writes "The Greens were off the ballot... because its old leaders had quit to join the Parti Québécois." Maddux conflates two incidents from the Quebec Green Party's past.
In the late '80s, leader Jean Ouimet and other executive members tried to fold the party into the Parti Québécois. Ouimet went over to the PQ, but Green members saved their party's separate identity. That's all they saved however, since like most tiny parties, the Greens were an empty shell ("coquille vide").
In the mid '90s, the party came into conflict with anarchists. The anarchists only wanted project funding, but the party was only accumulating money for elections. The party fell under control of the anarchists, finally. For the '98 elections, members decided to end the lucrativeness with an anti-electoral stunt of political hari-kiri: the party killed itself. Anarchism is, after all, opposed to political (instead of festive) parties. In your article, the new leader, Richard Savignac, is presented as a faithful member for "15 of his 33 years." I was involved with the federal and provincial Greens from the late '80's on--I haven't heard of him.
Maddux goes on to quote a current know-nothing Green member: "The guys who took a chance with the PQ were disappointed." No one went over to the PQ and so no one was disappointed. As for glib nonsense like "the new Greens belong to a younger generation," they sound ready to cut deals with Pepsi-Cola. Any younger and they're popping zits, not dreaming of being politicians. Mirror really flubbed on this story.
-- Bernard Cooper, anarchist scourge of politicians
Housing crisis
I was glad to read Kristian Gravenor's column [May 31] on how some Montreal neighborhoods have successfully eluded the yuppie bullet, but others have yielded to gentrification, thus driving rents sky-high and making them unaffordable to a large segment of the population.
Since Montreal is now suffering from an affordable housing crunch and it seems to have gotten progressively worse in the last three years, I wonder what will happen if Pierre Bourque is re-elected as mayor. The man is notorious for greenlighting condo development projects faster than you can bat an eye. The skyline is being transmogrified by luxury condo towers all over the place. And property owners in various districts continue to turn apartment buildings into condo units, or at least try to.
At the same time, the stock of apartment buildings and social housing has not increased at all. Will the apartment vacancy rate have to dip to 0.1 per cent before the city takes this problem much more seriously and invests more in social housing? We need to wake up if we do not want to eventually become like Toronto and many American cities.
--Manish Patwari
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