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Poll
I love my country.
Yes. 57%
I am an academic trendoid, and I don't deserve to live in a free, safe country. Send me to a despotic hellhole. 42%

Votes: 14

 Canada rules!

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
May 04, 2002
 Comments:
Today, I was tutoring an undergrad, and after we were done, we chatted for a bit. She told me how much she loves her new country, and I have to say, it felt great to hear it said.
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She is from Iran. Her family moved here six or seven years ago. She would have been about 14. We talked a little bit about Iran. I happen to know a bit about Iranian art music because of a composition teacher I had once. He was Hungarian, but was so fascinated with Iranian music that he learned Farsi and spent a term there in the mid 1970s.

The subject changed to travelling to foreign countries. I'm used to taking for granted that North America is 'racist.' After all, I hear about how racist things are here almost every day. So, I was a little bit shocked to hear that she considered Canada a model country in that respect.

"Iran has so much racism and prejudice," she said. "Here I have friends of all different races and religions, and everything is peaceful." While Canada does have serious racial problems, and as a Westerner I am very aware of them (Native Canadians tend to live very poor lives indeed in Northern Saskatchewan,) it was still gratifying for me to hear that it's not all bloody hell over here.

I am a patriot and I love my country. Sometimes it's easy to look at it in a bad light, but today I was reminded how lucky I am to live here, and how proud I should be.


A buddy of mine once tried to convince me that the (none / 0) (#1)
by Slobodan Milosevic on Sat May 4th, 2002 at 06:08:30 PM PST
casino that we were in was very despotic. I tried to explain to him that he could not claim that said casino was despotic unless he knew that the owner of the casino was a despot.

He still doesn't believe me.


 
Yes! (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat May 4th, 2002 at 08:14:43 PM PST
CANADA WINS THE GOLD!


 
You should have an option... (none / 0) (#3)
by gzt on Sun May 5th, 2002 at 08:59:34 AM PST
that says "I'm in America, but wish I were in Canada." I want color with a U and vestiges of royalty, dangit.




 
Quoting Little Steven, not Gordon Lightfoot? (none / 0) (#4)
by chloedancer on Mon May 6th, 2002 at 07:40:20 PM PST
"I am a patriot
And I love my county
Because my country is all I know..." [emphasis added...]

It may be tangential, but then again, it might also be oh-so-relevant after all.

----------

(Little Steven, aka Steven Van Zant, I Am A Patriot, (c) 1984 BLUE MIDNIGHT MUSIC/ASCAP.)


maybe that is true for me (none / 0) (#5)
by nathan on Mon May 6th, 2002 at 08:18:11 PM PST
But rather the point of my diary is that this girl is a Canadian patriot because she knows both Canada and Iran.

Now, I'm not an expert on Iran. All I know about Iran is what I've read, or heard from friends and teachers. I don't speak Farsi, I can't play the setar, and I don't know very much about Sufiism. As a matter of fact, my outlook on life is pretty parochial. I've only lived in North America, and I've never so much as travelled to another continent.

I accept this about myself. Perhaps I have no right to love my country, so passionately and uncritically. Canada is probably a good deal worse than I believe it to be.

All that said, I have as my immediate reason to feel proud the praise that someone from another country and another culture applied to mine. I could have contradicted her and told her that Canada is a bad place - not to love it uncritically - but I don't imagine she'd have liked that too well.

She'd probably have called me an ungrateful asshole.

In my experience, hipsters who hate their countries are usually more bigoted than those who love them.

Nathan
--
Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

Think of it this way... (none / 0) (#6)
by hauntedattics on Tue May 7th, 2002 at 05:22:34 AM PST
There are thousands of people who are trying to move to Canada from other regions and countries around the world. There must be something about it that people value, or they wouldn't abandon their own homeland/culture/family/etc. to make a new life in your country.

One of the nice things about living in a place like Canada is that you're allowed to hate your country, and say so, and no one will arrest you and throw your family in the street. Hating your country doesn't make you any better or cooler than those who love it, though.




 

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