It occurs to me from time to time that I am now living on the other side of the world from where I grew up, from where I considered home for 21 years. And yet, what has changed? I am worried I should feel more disjointed than I do here. It really is a long way from that home, a 10-hour, 5,000 mile flight, over the North Pole for God’s sake. Yet swap a thousand Londoners for a thousand Vancouverites and I suspect little confusion or disjunction would ensue. Certainly Londoners would probably gape at the surrounding mountains, ski runs poking through the trees above the downtown, and Vancouverites would in term be thrown by the visible heritage of London, but these differences are just superficial. Is this the very meaning of globalisation? Am I a global citizen now, and anywhere would be like this, or are these just global cities?
November 2, 2005