Tim Hortons, Starbucks and Second Cup

American coffee shops and if one should spit from above Ottawa it is most certainly to hit one of these. Today I went wandering through the streets of the city and I couldn't help but having a slight feeling that I was going in circles; in about 5 minutes I passed 2 Second Cups, 3 Tim Hortonses and 4 Starbuckses. At some point, because of the profound cold, I had to get to a building's interior to warm up a bit and how surprising is it that I soon found myself inside a grim-looking Tim Hortons.

Surely this is not at all exclusively the case of Ottawa. These coffee shops are spread universally and with most of our cities, the world over, this case is shared. And it is exactly this case which makes our so-called diverse cities look like one.

Now, I am not sure if diversity is necessarily a good thing. At the one hand, it can be argued that the more diversity you have the more freedom of choice there could be; but, on the other hand, the more diversity you have the more confusion and reluctance there is. The only reason I can think of which suggests the positivity of diversity is the fact that it increases the chances of survival, or like Mr Darwin once put it: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

So the next time you get to the likes of these coffee shops (which, judging by the rate they breed, is very soon), remember that they only make our society less diverse, therefore less adaptable to change and, by extension, weaker.