It’s raining today. Actually it’s been raining for a couple of days, and the last couple of nights have had thunder and lightning. I always thought that was cool. When I was a little kid, my Grandma used to say that with each flash, God was taking another picture. A cute explanation for sure, but then again, I was five, so I bought in.
Other Stuff…
I’ve been thinking about the events of the last couple of weeks here in Canada. More specifically about the arrests made related to the budding homegrown terrorist plot. It had the nation talking for a few days, but it seems the dust has settled. Given that there was no super fantastic destruction, the average Canadian seems to now look on with our patented “mild” disinterest. As if to say “well that’s over… let’s get back to the Oilers”
The media reaction by all accounts was fairly typical. In every interview I watched, the presenter tried to excrete the most irrelevant minutia from the “special guest terrorist expert.” It was like watching someone try and squeeze blood from a turnip. The segments progress from “What kind of training do these guys have?” to witless banter with staggering speed. Very quickly, and with a convincing certainty, I discovered that reruns of Seinfeld had more relevance to me, and flicked the channel.
They (The media…) repeatedly glazed over what I thought was truly the most important detail. The plot was foiled. Nothing happened. In the scheme of things it was a wonderful, happy anticlimax. The Mounties got their men! (See you kooky Americans… It really is true. The RCMP always gets the bad guys in the end.) And with that in mind, the whole thing seems so overblown.
Interesting to note as well, I have yet to hear any whining about how the plot “could have worked…” and it’s ensuing “We need to protect ourselves at any cost” blather. Perhaps we are just tired of it. Maybe it’s more about thanking our lucky stars, and a whole lot less about blaming terrorist radicals.
At the very least, we escaped the “Visqueen sheet plastic and duct tape” self-preservation nonsense. I’m amazed that Tom Ridge was ever able to bark that rubbish out with a straight face.
This strange event speaks to a difference between Canada and America. This plot was foiled by a proactive operation, not a reactive one. It demonstrates the effectiveness of quiet vigilance over voluminous and overbearing defiance, and most assuredly shows that we can protect our citizens without the need for any sort of invasion. We don’t need to push others around to be safe. (Or at least feel safe…) In my estimation, it’s less of beating the war drum, and more of singing folk songs around the campfire kinda thing.
However, for a few days after the arrests, I started to hear something fascinating. There was a lot of talk about the “dangers of multiculturalism”, and how it’s apparently a “breeding ground” for dissent and an eventual societal cataclysm. This was the first time I can ever recall hearing this from Canadians. This was also the first time I heard it coming from one of my friends.
This plot was conceived not because of multiculturalism. The ideal of people living collectively and sharing different cultures is not to blame. How could it be? The inability to communicate within the constructs of multiculturalism is part of the problem and another hefty chunk would be the failure to adapt to change. Those are the “breeding grounds” for a societal cataclysm.
Anyway… More to come as I think of it…
2 comments:
Canada has for a long long time been a pretty racist country--with regards to everyone but Europeans. And there IS a trend of public Canadian lip-service paid to the wonderful world of multiculturalism, coupled with the number of foreign-educated Asians who can't find jobs here in their fields.
Yes, we may respect your culture, but your universities suck road apples.
On the bottom, then, we have frustration, and on the top (happy pampered white people) there's a great deal of denial...mixed with a real minority who just don't "get" things like turbans, saris and burkhas. That minority wants some kind of retribution for the folkways they believe they've had to sacrifice to make way for the folkways of others.
In the white collar world, where I am, there has been a lot of talk about how we need to be more vigilant, get out the duct tape, etc. And stuff about how this "proves" we belong in Afghanistan. And finally, how there's clearly something wrong with those muslim kids today.
So you're right. Inability to communicate. No desire at all to communicate, as well. Complete refusal to adapt.
Good post. I look forward to reading more as you come to think of it.
You write good stuff. I'll check out your blog more often.
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