Cultural Mosaic, Friend or Foe?

 ‘Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? how much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever? Keep in mind that the earth itself is destined to be destroyed by the sun in twenty-five million years or so…’
~Catch-22, Joseph Heller

***

For the past month or so, I’ve been hearing about the on-going genocide in Sri Lanka. I even saw a few protestors rallying at Morningside and Ellesmere, a block away from the University of Toronto campus I’m attending. There were mothers, fathers, children and a number of elderly people carrying “Help Save Tamils” and “No to War” banners while some shouts “Stop the War Canada” with all their might .  However, shout as they might, I can see their protest is bound to fail at that moment. Don’t get me wrong, I do not carry any prejudice towards their ethnicity. Nevertheless, they are still protesting infront of a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Scarborough. It was almost rush hour then and the street was getting busy, and frankly, I was not amused that children were loitering around the sidewalk. I mean, mothers and children are usually at the end of the sidelines and not at the front of it.

I have forgotten about that incident for quite some time now and I only remembered it a few minutes ago. After I got home, I went to check on some news online and this is what I found on the headlines:‘Unlawful’ Tamil protest blocks Toronto highway (click on this link to read full article). In this article, I found out how this protesting has gone too far. Seriously, what can Canada possibly do in this situation? Yes, it is unfortunate that thousands of Tamils are being killed everyday in Sri Lanka, but whatever is happening there is a matter of Sri Lankan national security and not international. Canada’s hands are tied by certain rules and regulations, and as much as this country wants to answer all the pleas of the Tamil people, there is only so much that this country can do for them.

Again, I would like to emphasize that I am not pro-genocide. I am merely drawing attention to international codes of conduct that is embedded within every country’s constitutional fabric.  I am no lawyer nor am I a political activist, and maybe I don’t have a right to state these things because really, I don’t know anything about what’s really happening in Sri Lanka. Like these Tamil-Canadians, I am culturally-hybrid. This hyphen between these two nationalities I carry whenever I present myself as a Filipino-Canadian, is a proof of this fact. For us immigrants, we were advertised to believe that Canada is a haven in which all cultures can mingle together in perfect harmony. But just like any marketing strategy, it unfortunately carries a double standard. 

Toronto, most especially, is well-known to be a city which uses this “cultural mosaic” strategy to attract tourists across the globe. On the surface, it looks like a well-polished diamond. However, if you look closely, this cultual mosaic is actually just a fancy term for a culturally-divided city. Separated worlds make up this city we, Torontonians, live in.  Perhaps, all these Tamil-Canadians are asking is for Canada to act as the knight-in-shining-armour which will save their nation from the hands of an evil sorcerer. Regardless of the reason, it is still not Canada’s fight. A friend of mine argued awhile ago that chivalry is not dead, its just that a lot forgot about it. But in the case of this genocide issue in Sri Lanka, chivalry among nations has been dead a long time ago and there is no way of resuscitating it. It is a sad fact that amidst this so-called cultural mosaic, there is still an issue being neglected: a mosaic is an integration of different entities but there are still crooked lines dividing one colour from another. It is like having a big elephant in your living room that everyone seems to be refusing to acknowledge. 

The article made me think about the ugly side of Canada’s social fabric. Those commentaries after the article made me question this mosaic that Toronto, most especially, had been trying to promote.To have an idea as to what issue I’m referring to, here are some of the comments from the article:

1. “Maybe it’s time they were deported back. It’s not Canada’s fight, we are not the fix-it-all nation they are trying to use us for. Don’t bring your wars to Canada.”

2. 
   “Just another great addition to the Canadian andscape … thankfully un-hyphenated Candians have to work instead of causing problems for the rest of us …”

3. 
   “Break out the water cannons, tear gas and get them off the highway. Go protest in your home country if you are that concerned instead of holding the city hostage.”

4. “The Tamil-Canadians simply fail to understand that, regardless of the merit of their cause, we simply do NOT do that sort of thing here! If they can not accept that - they are free to enjoy their freedom to LEAVE and live elsewhere, non?“

Our modern-day holocaust: genocide in Sri Lanka.

See, wars are made by these kinds of words. Yes, they are direct-to-the-point and frankly, they make quite a lot of sense. Nevertheless, they are quite harsh and disrespectful. Indeed, the pen is mightier than the sword because really, all these wars, whether in Sri Lanka or Afghanistan, are just products of verbal disputes among a individuals. Language is manipulative when used incorrectly and fruitful in the right context. It is not wrong to passionately express disconcerns or disapprovals but just do it when you are sure that reason is present and not mentally absent from your thoughts. Tensions between cultures need to be moderated and not aggravated, and the right use of language can help appease any situation.

I love how many racist people comment here. All you care about is driving, and deporting anyone who isn’t ethnically White. We can’t even stand up for the rights of our own Aboriginal people and help relieve the poverty gap between our two worlds.

- one of the few well-thought comments I found from the CTV article which is a definite contrast from the ones quoted above.

Personally, I do not believe that it was right for those Tamil-Canadians to have taken up their protest on the Gardiner expressway, especially when a lot of people will be needing it to go to work tomorrow. Regardless of that thought, I also disapprove of the way these commentators handled themselves. They are just as much guilty of a crime like those protestors on the highway. They’ve barricaded their highway of reason and let their emotional rage get the best of them. But I guess, what else is new, right?  After all… the world is our oyster, and at the heart of it lies our pearl of flawed double-standards…

 That is all.

Adieu.

Credits:
http://ctv.ca 
http://www.tamileelamnews.com