2011-01-18

About Rhetoric Part Deux

With the Americans going on about "uncivil rhetoric," Canada and Quebec has its share.

No dogs or Anglophones does a nice job culling together hostile commentaries towards ethnics in Quebec.

"Les Americains sont des hombristes." Americans are insular. So went a news report years ago about a museum opening - of all things. Always struck me a little like "pot calling the kettle black."

About the link, I tend to regard them as "fringe" opinions.

***

Of course, the one that will remain imprinted in my mind forever and ever is Jacques Parizeau's infamous and classless "we lost because of the money and ethnic votes" during the 1995 referendum in which the Federal forces won by the slimmest of margins. People forget how close Canada came to being dissolved that night. Tension filled the air.

My friend and I were changing a head light on his car. Hardly a political type, he placed a cigarette in his mouth and said, "I can't believe how sad this is. Of all countries..." And said nothing else.

Indeed. Pure laine (pure stock) separatists act as if they're Palestinians. They're not. They're far, far, far from that scenario. Quite frankly, I find it horribly misguided for them to even remotely compare themselves to them. You ain't gonna get a better existence than in Canada. I admit that much. For all our mediocre and immature disposition at times, one thing we have is peace. Peace of mind. It's the one thing millions of immigrants yearned for when they came here. Over the years I've met and spoken to an endless amount of immigrants from Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Belgium, Armenia, Cuba, Turkey, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Haiti, Portugal, Sri Lanka, India, China, Somalia, Kenya, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador and countless others and they all had one thing in common in their opinions: Quebec has no idea what true oppression and violence is. They mock those who died in their homelands at the hands of their own government and various sectorial wars.

That night in 1995, we shamed democracy. Later, we discovered illegal spoil ballots and a deceitful question only caused more problems. The Feds, led by the Liberals, went into the election with a tad too much cockiness.

The sad thing about Parizeau's malicious nonsense was how a friend on my street rationalized it at the time: "It's true but you don't say those things in public."

Think about that. It does reveal a certain mindset.

I'd rather be an "ethnic with money" with class than a myopic separatist with none of either.

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous1/18/2011

    This video just seems made for you. I don't know why but it just screams you.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQf13B8epw

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1/19/2011

    Yes, it screams him quite a lot even though he might prefer to be American, if I well understood him in these years :-)

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  3. Anonymous1/19/2011

    But I probably didn't understand the words in the Youtube movie, so I probably got it all wrong.

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  4. No, I wouldn't "prefer" to be American. I accept my cultural fate. I admire America greatly but have equal respect for Canada. Canada is my home.

    I understand my posts and rhetoric sometimes may upset some but I won't shy away from challenging what I consider to be shortcomings in our country. I come from the perspective we should always ask and demand more. I try to talk about things I consider not discussed enough here in Canada.

    I know I don't hammer it more but I reall do see things beyond borders.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous1/19/2011

    Alright, after your numerous rants about Quebec's secessionist, and separatist attitudes towards you and other "ethnics" how about rethinking your love affair with Southern bullshit types on our side of the border? Just sayin' if you don't like the attitude please don't flirt with it down here.

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  6. Wo, wo, wo, wo, WO! Wo, camel!

    When did I ever post ANYTHING about having a love affair with the south?

    That video? Like I've explained to people in the past, I don't always post things I agree with. I post several links to articles that take a different view from mine. Even in my links section on the side I link to sites I don't necessary agree with.

    Other than that I'd like to know when I showed a love affair with the south. Because in my labels the South doesn't come up.

    I know I once asked if Quebec is like the South.

    As for Quebec secessionism, 4600 posts and I've spoken about it 12 times. Actually, I don't know why you see them as rants. The idea of sessionism is silly and should be discussed from time to time.

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  7. The other reason why I do it is because up here, we (too much) about America and its problems. I find we over play America and under play Quebec/Canada. It's getting better though but I still want to see more transparency and debate here.

    We dismiss our secessionist movement as being "minor" but is it really? Its power manifests itself on so many ways in the body politic of this country.

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  8. Southern bullshit types

    Bullshit types? Again with your hate for secession and liberty? Your rant on that video was what was complete bullshit, Zeus! Read more on the modern succession movement. It is anti-tyranny! The very gentleman you accused of being some kind of racist throwback is opposed to the Federal wars of aggression currently taking place Iraq and Afghanistan, against the fraudulent counterfeiting of the Federal Reserve and against the continued expansion of more power to the central government in Washington in general. All of those positions could be called "conservative", and certainly libertarian. I think T.C. would agree or sympathize with many of them.

    The cause of secession forever, support for the tyranny of the rotten Feds in Washington, never!

    Now take your bullshit and shove it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Easy there fellas. Remember what happens when rhetoric becomes uncivil.

    Apparently.

    I'm against Quebec or (Alberta for that matter) secessionism. Period. It's nonsensical gibberish. Neither of these entities would stand a chance of survival on its own standing next to the USA. It's just reality. That's just a guess on my part but it strikes me as way too messy of an adventure to ponder.

    Then there's the whole "values" thing. I just don't look at life and history like secessionists do.

    Canada is fine as it is. Not perfect, no, but not bad enough to have so many complaints by the provinces. Again, that's just my personal view.

    Canada as it stands is highly decentralized. We basically operate as 10 independent provinces that happen to talk in Ottawa. Little is portable (medicare cards), we have many trade wars and different policies on several issues like education and health.

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  10. I just realized something.

    Rather than bring people together I'm creating a wedge!

    Meh.

    It's more fun that way.

    All we need is Bret and then it'll get really interesting. Followed by Radio Bloger.

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  11. Anonymous1/20/2011

    You are hardly creating a wedge. Secessionist movements frequently do. The issue isn't really about how and if the secessionists can break apart the nation, only if they can create division amongst people, or justify bigotry for some romantic notions of sectionalism. You get a dose of that sometimes and I feel badly for you. A meeting of peoples and cultures should lead to progress of all sorts rather than antagonism.

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  12. I agree.

    Yeah, we get our doses. Just keeping it real. My French buddies don't believe their "Anglo" friends whenever (en passant and mostly jokingly) the amount of times we faced idiotic bigotry. We literally sit at the table looking at each other in shock. They that such things could happen in Quebec and us that, well, such things do happen from time to time.

    When a political leader says something corrosive like Parizeau did, it's easy to say "well, he's in the minority." And largely that's true, but there are people who actually believe people like me aren't "real" Quebecers.

    We tend to laugh it off but I will call them out each and every time they chastise the United States for its "divisive" rhetoric.

    Of course, bad language is used to describe Quebec as well. There are serious misconceptions of the province in other parts of the country.

    Now, all that being said, Montreal is truly a multilingual, multicultural, hip city that lives well beyond the realm of politics. Sadly, every once in a while the language bigots and secessionists have to prove their alive and drive a wedge between people in a city that have ZERO problems with each other.

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  13. "They're" alive.

    ReplyDelete

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