These wonderful words are on a Face Book page - along with a rant which really troubles me.
... is a guy wearing that damn towel around his head. My blood boiled! You are in Canada buddy, take the damn thing of, wear a baseball cap or something. YOU are not in your country now.
We have to remember Canada was built by immigrants. If you are a Canadian, and not a Native American, rest assured your ancestors came from another country. Actually, even if you are a Native American, your ancestors came from another country - thousands of years before us white skins did.
I am Canadian, but I was born in Scotland. I suppose I was lucky we weren't visible minorities - the only thing that gave us away was our highland accents. Mom kept hers until the end, but we weren't long losing most of ours. I say most, because even now someone picks up the scattered word. Especially the ones that rhyme with book.
The only racism I knew while growing up in Newfoundland was from Archie Bunker's mouth. This was comedy - everyone knew he had a heart of gold inside that tough exterior. We were all the same colour in our little town, and we all wore the same 'baseball caps.'
We flew to British Columbia in 1994. We had a lay-over at Toronto, and that was where my then 8-year old son saw his first turban-wearing man. He wondered why he had such a big bandage on his head. It wasn't long before he was settled into a classroom with people of all cultures - although in Richmond, mostly Chinese. He brought many friends through our doors - and he didn't care if they were different. Like all children, he had kind eyes.
We lived in Richmond for 17 years. We learned that not all Chinese people are good drivers - but believe it or not, white people wreck their cars too. We learned that a lot of Chinese people try to bargain for everything they buy - sometimes it works, so why not? The biggest thing I learned though, was we Anglo Saxons aren't the only ones who may practice a bit of racism - we were kind enough (Newfoundland hospitality and all that) to invite a young Asian girl to eat supper with us one night. She was the girlfriend of the young man who rented a room in our house for a year. As she tucked into her chicken, she told us that all Newfoundlanders are drunks. Hmmm. I said, 'Well, I don't drink, although I guess I'm only half a Newfoundlander as I was born in Scotland.' So then she included me when she said that all Scottish people are drunks, too.
Fortunately she didn't choke on a chicken bone.
Now we live in Surrey, which has a very high East Indian population. The kids' friends have names I find hard to pronounce. But Surrey, even though it is the fastest growing of all the Lower Mainland suburbs, seems to be more low key. The people are quiet spoken and gentle. One of our neighbours is an old man from Afghanistan, who flew for the Air Force fighting the Taliban. He gave thousands of dollars to a smuggler to bring his family safely through harsh mountainous country - he was told if his children cried they would be shot. You know, I really don't mind sharing this beautiful country with this brave man. I'm glad he can live in peace and know his grandchildren can laugh and cry and sing whenever they want.
One of my heroes is Commander Chris Hadfield. I imagine the first time he and his ISS team looked at our planet from way above the clouds, their minds weren't on finding the one little spot where they grew up. I imagine they saw Earth, one big wonderful Earth, full of ... why, Earthlings. Because no matter where we were born, where we grow up, or where we die, we are all children of the Earth.
So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
* *
Canada is known around the world as a country with excellent
opportunities, political stability, a healthy economy, and a very polite
population. Where the US is understood to be a melting pot of
different cultures, each culture blending with the new comers, Canada
has become a mosaic, where immigrants are able to live within their
beliefs and cultural norms without being assimilated into the existing
culture. Immigrants to Canada are able to enjoy the familiar dynamics
of their home country or participate in the Canadian culture without the
need to commit to one over the other.Sir John A MacDonald -
The first Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John Macdonald – or plain old John Macdonald as he was then known – emigrated to Canada as a child in the 1820s from Glasgow. Regarded as one of modern-day Canada’s founding fathers, Sir John left school at just 15 years of age but in 1867 became the dominion of Canada’s first Prime Minister. Macdonald is also recognised as the founder of the famous Canadian Mounted Police Force, better known as the ‘Mounties’.
Alexander Graham Bell -
The Scottish-born inventor of the telephone, moved to southern Ontario in 1870 at the age of 23, when his parents purchased a 10.5 acre farm. He became a naturalised citizen 12 years later. Ironic, that an immigrant should be credited with inventing the technology that would allow so many other immigrants to keep in touch with their family over the years, don’t you think?
Adrienne Clarkson -
Born in Hong Kong in 1939, Clarkson came to Canada as a refugee with her parents in 1942. After settling in Ottawa, Ontario, Clarkson went on to create a career in broadcasting, journalism, the arts and public service.
Robert Herjavec -
Robert Herjavec is known to many Canadians as the good looking, nice dragon on the popular CBC series Dragons’ Den. Born in Zbjeg, Croatia, Herjavex immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of ten. They settled in a small home in Toronto, Ontario. Herjavec is estimated to have a personal net worth of over $100 million. Pretty impressive for a Croatian immigrant that landed with his family in Canada with only $20.
Peter Mansbridge -
Mansbridge was born in London, England in 1948, and raised in Ottawa, Ontario.
Mansbridge’s on-air career began when he was discovered by a radio executive who heard the, at that time, baggage handling Mansbridge make an announcement at the Churchill, Manitoba airport in 1968. He was soon heard on the northern service of CBC Radio, and then was transplanted to Winnipeg, Manitoba as a reporter, still on CBC Radio, and eventually becoming a reporter on CBC Television.
In 1975 he became a reporter for The National, and then a parliamentary correspondent in Ottawa, and eventually became the anchor of CBC Prime Time News, The National, and in 1999 launched his own program, Mansbridge One on One, where he interviews major players in the current news.
Despite dropping out of the Glebe Collegiate Institute before graduating, Mansbridge has received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario and the University of Windsor.
( from http://www.sureimmigration.com/blog/2010/11/famous-canadian-immigrants/)
we are all children of the Earth
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