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An article from the UK Telegraph -Totally OT
An article from the UK Telegraph -Totally OT
Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest
nation - Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON -
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably
almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian
troops are deployed in the region. And as always, will bury its dead,
just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice,
just as it always forgets nearly everything ever does.
It seems that 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both
of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is
over, to be well and truly ignored.
Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the
hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire
breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers,
and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the
dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those
she once helped Glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely
neglecting her yet again.
That is the price pays for sharing the North American continent with
the , and for being a selfless friend of in two global conflicts. For
much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions:
It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new
one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the
gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the
cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any
democracy.
Almost 10% of 's entire population of seven million people served in
the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died.
The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian
troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order
of battle.
Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect,
it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular
Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British."
The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the
war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of
the against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships
participated in the landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers
went ashore on D-Day alone. finished the war with the third-largest
navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.
The world thanked with the same sublime indifference as it had the
previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in
film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a
campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a
touching scrupulousness which, of course, has since abandoned, as it
has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in keep
their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary
Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William
Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter
and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and
Christopher Plummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to
be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably
Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite
unable to find any takers.
Moreover, is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of
it's sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware
of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by
anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of
the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half
century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions
on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to
East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular
on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in , in which
out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their
regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of
self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no
international credit.
So who today in the knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its
northern neighbour has given it in ? Rather like repeatedly does
honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked
for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such
honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian
families knew that cost all too tragically well.
--
24 hours in a day
&
24 beer in a case
Coincidence?
I think not
Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest
nation - Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON -
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably
almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian
troops are deployed in the region. And as always, will bury its dead,
just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice,
just as it always forgets nearly everything ever does.
It seems that 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both
of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is
over, to be well and truly ignored.
Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the
hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire
breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers,
and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the
dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those
she once helped Glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely
neglecting her yet again.
That is the price pays for sharing the North American continent with
the , and for being a selfless friend of in two global conflicts. For
much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions:
It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new
one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the
gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the
cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any
democracy.
Almost 10% of 's entire population of seven million people served in
the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died.
The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian
troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order
of battle.
Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect,
it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular
Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British."
The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the
war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of
the against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships
participated in the landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers
went ashore on D-Day alone. finished the war with the third-largest
navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.
The world thanked with the same sublime indifference as it had the
previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in
film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a
campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a
touching scrupulousness which, of course, has since abandoned, as it
has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in keep
their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary
Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William
Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter
and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and
Christopher Plummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to
be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably
Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite
unable to find any takers.
Moreover, is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of
it's sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware
of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by
anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of
the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half
century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions
on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to
East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular
on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in , in which
out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their
regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of
self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no
international credit.
So who today in the knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its
northern neighbour has given it in ? Rather like repeatedly does
honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked
for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such
honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian
families knew that cost all too tragically well.
--
24 hours in a day
&
24 beer in a case
Coincidence?
I think not
