(* louise, you've seen this before but i'm hoping there are other lovers out there in internet land who may stumble upon me one evening...)
"The fundamental question, though, is why people use Canadian patriotism as a protective cloak from American patriotism. Do they not see that while the colours may be different, the fabric remains essentially the same?....I rebut the argument that simply 'being better' than the United States of America (or 'American citizens') is...a cause for celebration - indeed, this is not a difficult achievement. In fact, if we measure how peaceful and just a given society is by using the United States as a yardstick, our moral compass is in need of significant returning. [...]"
Before i begin i would like to say that i love living in canada. i really love universal health care. in fact, if universal health care had sex organs i'd fuck it and if it was legal to marry an act of legislation i'd marry it.
i have recently began wondering, like the above, article, if being 'canadian' is all it's cracked up to be.
a couple of weeks ago i went to a show at the local dinner theatre for a staff christmas party. unbeknownst to me the show was a tribute to canadian pop stars and consequently also beer and shitty television. is that being canadian means? is that what being a citizen of any country means: paying homage to your national heritage by celebrating mediocre pop stars and bad beer? somehow i don't think so and when the show failed to acknowledge non-white performers i got a little uncomfortable. who the hell do we think we are? we forget so much of our own genocidal history and focus soley on peace-keeping and pop stars.
i recently had the pleasure of spending some time in the united states and meeting a lot of really cool people and when i got home and people asked me what the best part of my trip was and i say the time i spent in the states i get this, "but isn't it so fucked up there?" kind of look. and yeah, it's fucked up, no one is going to argue with me on that one...but it's still a place full of PEOPLE who are people regardless of their nationality.
in the grand scheme of things nationality is irrelevant. in the end, the fact that i am canadian is totally irrelevant. we've gotten cocky and it's turned us into ignorant/arrogant people. today it's not the kind of ignorance or arrogance that starts wars or commits genocide (as it was at the time of our colonial forefathers); but it's the kind of ignorance that makes us believe that we are somehow better and therefore entitled to something. all people are entitled to the same things as we are-we forget that-all the things that we take for granted are the simple rights that should be afforded to all people. instead of looking in the mirror at our own countries problem, we stand up and say "we're the best! we're better than americans! we're peace keepers! jim carrey is a canadian!!" fuck jim carrey!! People are being held in canadian jails for indefinite periods of time without trial; the premier of alberta is a bigot, homophobic, fascist money grubbing asshole...he is the george dubya of canada. when this exists how can we be the best. how can we even be considered better?
one need look only to the natural disaster in south east asia this past week to see that we are so much more than people under a flag, or a beer brand. we are citizens of a world connected by nature. nature destroys indiscriminately. when a tsunami kills over 100,000 people what does it matter where you are from. your brothers and sisters and their children are dying and will continue to die. how is living in "the best country in the world" going to prevent you from being affected by that. it's not.
being proud of where you live is not a bad thing. that is what patriotism should be. pride in where you're from demonstrated in such a way that you care for that place. it's patriotism at the expense of other people that becomes ridiculous. american's are not destroying the world. a certain administration's view of america and their resulting foreign policy is. that idea has nothing to do with joe average guy in omaha nebraska. shit, joe's the same as you, he just has a different passport-he eats and shits and cries when his dog gets hit by a bus the same as you would.
we've got to start looking beyond our national borders and look at the people. we are citizens of a big fucking planet, not a tiny little country...
what more can i say...thank god for health care and i will be the first person on the steps of the legislature the day ralph attempts to take it away from me...(or the next time he tries would be a more accurate statement.)
please see full article: 'canadians have no reason to feel proud' at http://resist.ca/story/2004/12/22/2009/3774 by samir hussain writing in Znet on december 14, 2004
xo alice.also: i am listening to this amazing band i just discovered that i know nothing about: american analog set...check 'em out!!
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