patrotism
i joined the red and white throngs who celebrated canada yesterday. 144 years. people screaming, people singing, people with another excuse to get drunk. i wore read.
red reminds me of another patriotic event. red, blue and yellow cloth blowing in the wind. the same cloth sticking to hot, sweaty, black bodies pressed tightly against the only white people in the crowd. the cinquantenaire. t'chad's 50th birthday party. January 11, 2011. an overwhelming display of military might: on foot, on tank, on horse, and even on camel back. an extremely sobering display of disparity and economic (and to my eye moral) discrepancy. flat screen tv's and bubbling fountains in the middle of a starving city where the majority of the population is without clean water or reliable power.
memories like this made me sick to the stomach as i watched 'patriotic' canadians celebrate their freedom with alcohol and frivolity. and i wonder about sobering up our own drunken arrogance. i don't want to be cruel, i like a good party too (maybe not as much as the next person on this specific day), but i am also aware that our standard of living and our freedom for frivolity come at a cost. where is the balance between enjoyment and extravagance?
and the highlight of the day: people crowded on a hill top (in manitoba we call it a hill, for the rest of you it would be a mound) and staring at pretty lights in the sky. and i thought of my students laughing as they told me stories of hiding under tables two years ago when lights, which must sound very similar to those i heard last night, shook their city in civil war.
red reminds me of another patriotic event. red, blue and yellow cloth blowing in the wind. the same cloth sticking to hot, sweaty, black bodies pressed tightly against the only white people in the crowd. the cinquantenaire. t'chad's 50th birthday party. January 11, 2011. an overwhelming display of military might: on foot, on tank, on horse, and even on camel back. an extremely sobering display of disparity and economic (and to my eye moral) discrepancy. flat screen tv's and bubbling fountains in the middle of a starving city where the majority of the population is without clean water or reliable power.
memories like this made me sick to the stomach as i watched 'patriotic' canadians celebrate their freedom with alcohol and frivolity. and i wonder about sobering up our own drunken arrogance. i don't want to be cruel, i like a good party too (maybe not as much as the next person on this specific day), but i am also aware that our standard of living and our freedom for frivolity come at a cost. where is the balance between enjoyment and extravagance?
and the highlight of the day: people crowded on a hill top (in manitoba we call it a hill, for the rest of you it would be a mound) and staring at pretty lights in the sky. and i thought of my students laughing as they told me stories of hiding under tables two years ago when lights, which must sound very similar to those i heard last night, shook their city in civil war.
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