Last Saturday (Feb 10th), I found a paper cutting on the cardboard board in the laundry room. The Title got my attention, and I guiltlessly brought the paper thingy put up by the rental agency, into the comforts of my living room to pry over.
It was a column by someone called "Don Martin" and the newspaper was "National Post".
The Title was: "New Here? Learn the game's rules".
I would suggest that before you read any further, just take a look at the scanned image. (I couldn't do better, and I don't have photoshop...but I guess you can figure it out ---how to read that thing)
Reading anything is a reflexive action and the effect would vary from person to person based on our dispositions and the current mood level, but it succeeds in literally boiling my blood EVERY time I read it.
I will tell you precisely in which points and why. don't ask me how, please.
The first and the "golden" rule: It's Canada first, wherever you came from second. Emigrating here is not about acquiring a second home, it's about embracing a new life. The minute citizenship is conferred on you, the Maple leaf is your flag, if not your hockey team. All other nations are secondary.
My only question is: how human or intelligent is it to ask adult people to forget certain symbols, embracing the new life (and please,... what is that new life?? getting fucked by the "Canadian life" and meeting the "Canadian look" on how they have done you a favour by tolerating you in the public spaces/offices/schools? ) If one just imparts one sensible minute to the process...we cannot embrace anything until we clean and make some space for it. Embracing the Canadian life (can someone tell me what does being Canadian means, apart from being a thesaurus synonym of those people who are alike and would like to be called, but are not called, and regret thereby , AMERICANS ? [read the question again, in case you didn't get it] )....does being Canadian mean being Caucasian and loving Tim Hortons more than Starbucks? )
so yeah...i was asking....does embracing the Canadian life imply you leave being Black? stop speaking Mandarin and preferring rice/noodles over pizza? dress in incredible pink? forget about who you are? Why should an immigrant's identity need to be erased to be "welcomed and accepted" in Canada before being TAGGED as an "immigrant" by "mainstream Canada" (--> Caucasian immigrants who came some hundred years back and plundered and killed the aboriginals so that they could settle and monopolize in this awesome land) ?
Second Rule: Religion here is about customs, not conflict. ...........Burkas, being the mark of an oppressed woman, are strongly discouraged, even as Halloween costumes.
Excuse me??!! What gives you the privilege, Mr Martin, to pass a judgement on the Burka? and that, it is the mark of an oppressed woman??
Would you consider me oppressed? Because, whenever I go the gym, I dread of going to the locker room of the gym (and so keep my stuff in the lockers outside) as that would entail looking at hairless and haired female genitalias of different sizes, and hanging and tight breasts, --these almost making me feel like vomiting. Because of this sight pollution, to which I'm not accustomed, being raised in India, I feel oppressed, .... of the right to use the locker room, although a part of my fees are paid for its maintenance and upkeep.
Would you please label me as oppressed as I have to undergo looking at cleavages of obese women (even when it's snowing outside)....and libido-driven individuals who could have sex anybody and everybody as long as the guy looks passeable and supposedly has a long apparatus?
I consider myself oppressed. These things put me off. These things remind me and make me pity these Canadian women who are compelled to think of and dress accordingly to be "sexually attractive" and so objectified? (by your society)
Please, if you could allow horrible looking cleavages to frequent just about any public space, then I have one suggestion for Burkas:- just close your eyes and think the Burkas don't exist. In case, ....they hurt you so much.
Third Rule: Canada is safe for same-sex marriages but no place for arranged marriages.
I get that one. This means that marriage practices of Europeans and Americans are okay; marriage practices from the Indian sub-continent are not.
By the way, do you even think of Europeans and Americans when you pronounce the word "Immigrant"? Are the former brothers, and the latter aliens, and thereby, rivals?
And I can also perfectly understand the fact --that you can live with arranged dates and have sex and kiss people without knowing their favourite childhood memory, but why you can't go for arranged marriage.
Fourth Rule: If your religion calls for a pilgrimage, consider another to the country you call home. A coast-to-coast tour would help you appreciate your vast, diverse new homeland.
Hahahaha...."diverse"?? Where the fuck is the diversity here?? It's always "US" Vs "Them" (the exotic people and people who came late. you see, we came here first (the aboriginals didnt exist) and built up these beautiful industry, land, malls...(sucking on so-called "globalization" and ahem....colonization even before) and these dirty minorities come here and adulterate the fun. )
And, "home"? Can a place that tags, issues sanctions to forget your past (and future as well) and has an uptight ass attitude,....ever be HOME?
And, Mr Martin, do you know what "pilgrimage" means? Ahhhh.....How would you even know? you don't have that thing in your religion. So why even bother to pass comments on other religions just because you think that you know all about that, as well as define multiculturalism?
Fifth Rule: .....................Afghanistan is the real war against Terror, not the contrived conflict in Iraq.
Right! Killing more than 10,000 civilians, poor, starving, unharming, unaggressive, simple, innocent Afghanis help eradicate terrorism. How would you like it Mr Martin, if your 14 year old son was going to get some movie from the videostore in the neighbourhood, and gets bombed by a flying airplane and loses one or more organs? organs like legs, hands, hands, .....?
Afghanis don't even have Blockbusters. They just go by their days trying to get some meal to eat as dinner. I'm not even rating what kind of meal is that. Afghani meals. Not roast beef, mashed potatoes and vegetables with fruits, milk and ice cream to follow some time later.
Sixth Rule: Minorities should live in mixed communities. There's an obvious temptation to cluster in districts with those who have shared traditions, languages and social norms. But sadly, ethnic isolation has become the incubator for home-grown fanaticism and terrorism. Residential integration is the key to a successful resettlement here.
I just have a few questions:
1. Is there any obvious temptation, by the Caucasian, to cluster in districts lived by fellow-Caucasians to buy real estate and while renting to live? Would you like your Chinese neighbour, Mr Martin? Would you call your Indian neighbour for your Christmas Party? (without regretting, that is) We do celebrate Christmas in India, you know. It's not a religious festival for us.....it's a happy festival for us. And we don't hate our Christian friends. We call them as much as we do our Pujas and Eid-s, as much as they call us in their Good Fridays and Christmas-es. Is the obvious temptation to talk to like minded people and people who have a shared history and past,.. a crime in Canada? Does it hurt too hard to have diasporic people in your land, Mr Martin?
2. Define fanaticism and terrorism for me. I hope your definition does not include that those who are Muslims, are terrorists. That's not politically correct. And, when you are speaking in media, at least there you need to be politically correct, if not anywhere else. Or do you think being politically correct would not portray the emotions felt and wanted by your daily readership?
3. How can ethnic clustering of living arrangements incubate terrorism?
By that definition, would predominantly white neighbourhoods also be terrorist? You guys are also waging war on several places in the world, you know....like Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan...........what did you say? You are not waging it, the USA is doing that? Ohhhhh.......I was thinking that your ethnic and religion identity are the basis of judging people. So you are not terrorists. I get it!
Then what are ya? Racists, possibly?! you see, I need to put you into a category, just as you do that to me.
Haven't you heard--As you sow, so you reap!
There are many more rules (in the newspaper column) like the ones posted above. Go back to the scanned image, (if you click on them, they will get bigger and clearer) and if you still haven't looked at it, and are hurt by my comments, then I urge you: PLEASE, go and have a look before you pass your precious judgment on me.
The fact that saddens me and adds to my alienation is the acceptance of these golden rules and presumptions by the general Canadian public /people who have written back and congratulated Mr Martin on his profound writing; the fact that the rental administrative thought this was just as normal.
I'm afraid, that some of you even might think so.
This is just a piece of "Multiculturalism" I see everyday in Canada. I see it in derogatory remarks thrown at me, by unexplained and regular rude behaviour I encounter on a daily basis.
My husband doesn't like the Canadian Gaze (as he refers it) when he comes to meet me here. (He lives in the U.S, and says the hatred is not such explicit and bold there).
Previously, when concerned professors had asked me when I'm applying for Immigration in Canada (as that would mean eligibility for a sea of scholarships, from which International Students are exempt, and half the tuition fees), I had politely replied....not in one or two years.
Now, I have made a decision. I'm glad that I made it.
I will never ask for Immigration in Canada. I cannot possibly call this place as my home....this place where these kinds of newspaper columns are usual and not uncommon.
But, where these kind of rantings are uncommon. Because WE (the exotic and strange people) live in a constant dread of being tagged as terrorists and hatemongers, if we choose to show our independent opinion and deploy freedom in our daily activities.
In Canada, I am not a dreamer, and definitely,... lonely (not the only one).
(God Bless John Lennon. R.I.P)
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