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| Great White North | |
| The ominous face of multiculturalism | |
| 2006-06-11 | |
| By Ian Robinson Back when Yugoslavia fell into genocidal civil war, I worked with a young Croatian kid. He was built like a full-sized pickup, but he was a sensitive soul, a painter in his spare time. And what his lifelong friends had become was torturing him. He told me these Canadian-born kids, barely into their 20s, mocked him because he refused to join their secular jihad to the fragmented Yugoslavia, to fight for the culture their parents or grandparents left behind. They called his manhood into question. They went. He stayed. When they returned, some were unalterably changed. They drank more. Lots more. When the bottle got down to the bottom couple of inches, they talked of atrocity. Not the atrocities they witnessed. The atrocities they committed. Nice, decent, polite Canadian boys, raised on hockey rinks, maple syrup, Don Cherry, O Canada, the Tim Hortons double-double and the liberal culture of acceptance had placed the reticule of a telescopic rifle sight on civilian women and pulled the trigger. They had shot indiscriminately into occupied houses and burned villages. They hinted at darker secrets, such as mass rape. Even after listening to these tales of soul-killing horror, my young friend felt guilty for remaining behind. At the time, an eastern paper published a feature in which one "soldier" recounted how his Yugoslavia-born mother wept and begged him not go, saying this was not his war. His reply was if she didn't want him to feel such a strong connection to the old country, she should not have sent him to a cultural school several times a week, steeping him in the language, culture and, yes, resentments of the past. Such is the ominous and hidden face of Canadian multiculturalism. We confront it yet again today. Only this time, 17 Canadian-born or Canadian-raised men and boys stand accused of plotting a terrorist attack on Canadian soil.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Everyone has and acquires baggage. People who are actually intelligent intentionally leave some or all at each way-station - and move on unburdened. This is, unfortunately, quite rare. |
| Posted by: flyover 2006-06-11 19:54 |
| #2 The key is to enjoy learning about the old country, its culture and language, while teaching the youngsters that we left behind the quarrels when we came here -- all of us here are Canadians (or whatever) now. I ran into that in Germany though; my lovely Croatian neighbor, who'd left over two decades previously, wouldn't speak to the sweet Serbian baker's assistant, who'd been in Germany even longer. And when Mr. Wife played soccer in high school, they elected him captain even though he had the worst soccer skills, because as an American of Polish descent, the immigrant Serb, Croat and Macedonian boys on the team felt he was the only one they could trust to deal fairly with all. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-11 19:47 |
| #1 to fight for the culture their parents or grandparents left behind. All that Monday morning quarterbacking about the problems in the home country. All the "retaining culture" lessons and airing of old grievances left behind. Til the kids take up the old "rape and pillage. kill the enemy" mentality the parents ran away from. And they're surprised? |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-06-11 11:22 |