Rant
It may be the influence of the collection of George Orwell essays I've been reading on the bus each morning, but I've been paying particular attention to the social fabric of Calgary. As I mentioned earlier, the province of Alberta is going through the biggest economic boom it's ever experienced. Bloated oil and gas executives are making fortunes and property speculators are giddy as school girls. Apparantly the city's corporate elite have super expensive box seats at next week's Calgary Stampede. People have been known to flash $100s of dollars at the bouncers out front of the Stampede bar I've been helping to set up, in order to avoid the 4 hour que.
I've never experienced such a money-driven culture (and as far as I'm aware it's a very different environment to elsewhere in the country). Everyone is in on the game. Even those who don't work directly for oil and gas are enjoying the spin-off effects of the hot economy. It's like the polar opposite of 'lil Canberra where I never really felt the feeling of 'possibility'. It's like I could trend my future in the public service and just see a slightly higher pay packet, definately a higher mound of paper to shuffle, a mortgage and a flat at the coast, but that's about it.
I just wish I was one of those sort of people who could just capitalise on this sort of environment. I know however that I'd have difficulty working for some of these people. Case in point: The other night my cousin, her partner and I went to knock some golf balls around at the driving range. Some acquaintences of my cousin came along - a couple of right wing, 4WD driving, oil n gas executive types. And did they sure fill me in on the 'real' Calgary. They were so obnoxious that my cousin at one point actually started crying in embarrasment and apologised to me profously afterward for their highjacking the conversation. To paraphrase, they said to me (in that black & white reductionist way conservatives can talk): Matthew, your liberal education means very little here. Here it's all about making money. If you have the skills you get rich. We in the offices make the plans and the grunts do the work. We get rich and they get rich. The men with the big arms out in the field make big money. You are small and you have no trade. The were *very* blunt.
So while I initially had romantic notions of heading up north to the oil fields to work hard and make a bundle of money, it's quite likely that'd be a dead end of me. And as far as sticking around and working in the corporate world...aaagh, no thankyou! I wonder how sustainable the overheated economy is? Bust always follows boom right..?
I'm still enjoying the Stampede work. It's so physical it's like I'm being paid to work out! You meet a real mix of people at these sorts of things - travellers like myself, yearly regulars and weird drifters of all sorts. I was biting into a cheeseburger at lunch yesterday and this strange woman sitting next to me said, in all seriousness, that I should watch out for the beef for fear of catching mad cow disease. I almost started to wretch before realising it was a foolish thing to say considering that scare ocurred years ago and nobody in Canada actually caught the disease. Most people are cool though. I had drinks tonight with an English chap who's been cycling around the western provinces with a travelling companion from Canberra of all places. He'll introduce me to the guy tomorrow - I may know the him.
Stampede officially starts tomorrow! Flat out work and 1am finishes from here on in...
MG
I've never experienced such a money-driven culture (and as far as I'm aware it's a very different environment to elsewhere in the country). Everyone is in on the game. Even those who don't work directly for oil and gas are enjoying the spin-off effects of the hot economy. It's like the polar opposite of 'lil Canberra where I never really felt the feeling of 'possibility'. It's like I could trend my future in the public service and just see a slightly higher pay packet, definately a higher mound of paper to shuffle, a mortgage and a flat at the coast, but that's about it.
I just wish I was one of those sort of people who could just capitalise on this sort of environment. I know however that I'd have difficulty working for some of these people. Case in point: The other night my cousin, her partner and I went to knock some golf balls around at the driving range. Some acquaintences of my cousin came along - a couple of right wing, 4WD driving, oil n gas executive types. And did they sure fill me in on the 'real' Calgary. They were so obnoxious that my cousin at one point actually started crying in embarrasment and apologised to me profously afterward for their highjacking the conversation. To paraphrase, they said to me (in that black & white reductionist way conservatives can talk): Matthew, your liberal education means very little here. Here it's all about making money. If you have the skills you get rich. We in the offices make the plans and the grunts do the work. We get rich and they get rich. The men with the big arms out in the field make big money. You are small and you have no trade. The were *very* blunt.
So while I initially had romantic notions of heading up north to the oil fields to work hard and make a bundle of money, it's quite likely that'd be a dead end of me. And as far as sticking around and working in the corporate world...aaagh, no thankyou! I wonder how sustainable the overheated economy is? Bust always follows boom right..?
I'm still enjoying the Stampede work. It's so physical it's like I'm being paid to work out! You meet a real mix of people at these sorts of things - travellers like myself, yearly regulars and weird drifters of all sorts. I was biting into a cheeseburger at lunch yesterday and this strange woman sitting next to me said, in all seriousness, that I should watch out for the beef for fear of catching mad cow disease. I almost started to wretch before realising it was a foolish thing to say considering that scare ocurred years ago and nobody in Canada actually caught the disease. Most people are cool though. I had drinks tonight with an English chap who's been cycling around the western provinces with a travelling companion from Canberra of all places. He'll introduce me to the guy tomorrow - I may know the him.
Stampede officially starts tomorrow! Flat out work and 1am finishes from here on in...
MG
posted by Matt G at 8:02 PM
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