thoughtmechanics

On being Canadian, and not…thoughts on distinct nationhood within a unified Canada…

While growing up I had the distinct honor of being both Greek and Canadian. This was a joke at some point during the eighties. It seemed that all Canadians were hyphenated at that time and I was no exception.

Of course, being a Greek-Canadian was the case only when I lived in Canada. When I happened to be living in Greece, then I was purely Greek. You see, Greece is jealous of its children…or in my case, of its children’s children.

Until about the age of sixteen, I’d already lived half my life in Toronto, Canada and the other half in Greece. In my mind I had already fixated around the idea that I was indeed a Greek who happened to have been born in Canada and so could speak English well and knew, more or less, the habits of the foreign Canadians.

In fact, I had always felt a little foreign, (well, to be honest, very foreign) in Canada well into my late twenties. By that time I was convinced that I didn’t belong in Canada and the thought of leaving had taken firm hold of me.

I did manage to leave at some point, and now I am happily living another life halfway around the world in Greece…but am I Greek? Well, it turns out that I’m not.

Actually, I am about as Greek as I am Canadian. What does that mean? It means that I am not nearly as Greek as the Greeks who never left Greece and who grew up and always lived here, just as I was never as Canadian as the Canadians who had always grown up in Canada and knew themselves to be Canadian.

After many years of seeking to clarify and refine my identity I have finally realized that in fact I lack one. I am not Greek and I am not Canadian. To be honest, I find the thought of being anything ‘national’ quite repugnant and claustrophobic. Especially given my current occupation which puts tens of thousands of flight miles under my belt every month, I cannot imagine what having such an identity could be like anymore.

All these thoughts come to me as I reflect on the recent motion to recognize Quebec as a distinct nation within Canada. I like the idea. During the last two referendums I hoped that the independence side would win and that Canada would split up. It wasn’t out of malice. No, not at all. Rather, I wanted to be able to travel across international borders when traveling across the North American continent.

Having travelled through Europe in my early twenties, I found that it was fascinating to cross four or five international borders in a matter of a few hours by car. I hoped that one day North America would be like that as well, so that there would be diversity in evidence everywhere.

Well, the referendum never brought about a Quebec Libre, but I still haven’t given up hope that Quebec will one day be free. But in all honesty, it seems to me totally ridiculous that distinct societies like the Quebecois should seek ‘national’ independence in today’s political climate. To have an independent state when one has all the benefits of independence within a larger entity like Canada is to be gluttonous. It is to want more when one is already full and needs to loosen the belt. What Quebec needs, along with all the other provinces, is a freedom of the mind.

But people are like that. They want more. Even when it comes to lugging around huge amounts of baggage, they want to acquire and lug even more. The same with those who want to create more independent and sovereign states.

As for me, I want less of that. I can’t be bothered by a sense of nationality any more. I couldn’t care less if Canada or Greece were to disintegrate and if people never again sang their national anthems. I couldn’t care less if ‘our’ national teams ever win at anything again in international tournaments and the like.

What I do care about, though, is the earth, its life, its beauty. I care about seeing beautiful vistas, and knowing that they will be there to be seen and experienced by generations in the future. I care about letting ourselves outgrow ourselves in a graceful way. Humans are only here for a short time. Before we were more like monkeys, tomorrow we will be more like something we may not be able to conceive of today. So be it. Let us allow for it to be it.

As I care less and less about nations and flags and anthems and borders, I care more and more about transgressing the borders and limits that define our humanity. I want to get beyond them, not in a violence, but because we must and will outgrow them. I am a child that can’t wait to grow up. Yes, that’s it.

So when Harper makes these heavy statements in parliament and everyone is in a fuss over whether he was wise or not to do it, I catch myself laughing, knowing that all of this is so much chaff that will be picked up by the wind and scattered here and there.

The seed that matters has already been sown and lies sleeping in the dark earth. It is winter now and the days are short. Yet, spring will come, along with the warm wind that will thaw the ground and beckon the wealth that sleeps in it to make itself known. This wealth that sleeps now in the ground knows no nations and could care less.

And when this wealth springs forth and takes hold, these petty considerations will have drained away, much as the winter snows will have melted and the waters drained from the fields…just as the days of the ’state’ and its ’static’ claustrophobia will have melted away too…

After much thought and debate, some ’serious’ US media ‘outlets’ have decided that “Yep, it’s a civil war” in Iraq and, despite ‘objections’ by the White House, they are going to actually use that term in their reporting of the conflict there… Wow! Chalk one up for Democracy, Free Speech and Freedom of the Press.

Let’s face it, the very fact that this kind of discourse is taking place, that ‘media outlets’ such as the Washington Post and the New York Times are discussing whether to call a civil conflict that has killed more than 100 000 people over the last 3 years a civil war or not, is a reflection of the extent to which there is a serious deficit in the US of Democracy, Free Speech and Freedom of the Press.

If anything, the declaration by ‘media outlets’ to call it a civil war sounds like a declaration of independence. It sounds like there’s someone at the window shouting “I’ve had enough of this and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

What have these media executives had enough of? Why are they about a year or two behind the rest of the world in naming the civil war in Iraq a civil war? What is involved in this declaration of Independence? Were they not independent before? How much has the ‘war on terror’ in the US been a war of democracy, freedom and expression?

These are hard questions and I don’t think American media ‘outlets’ are ready to deal with them yet. Thankfully there is the Internet. There is no deficit of people there who are willing to both ask these questions or discuss them… Of course, there is also no deficit of people who take offence to these discussions. Someone recently commented on one of my posts at “Thought Mechanics” that people who do discuss such issues and disagree with the ‘patriotic’ point of view would be thrown in jail if they were living in bastions of freedom of expression, like Canada or the US. Why? Because these discussions incite hate!

Perhaps the tide is turning. Perhaps journalism will once again assume its proper role and begin reporting on what is happening rather than be the mouthpiece of administrations. But nah, most media ‘outlets’ are like franchise or chain ‘outlets’. Imagine if individual ‘outlets’ like McDonald’s or WalMart were to have an independent point of view and start to offer what they consider better ‘deals’ to their customers…the chains would break…