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Random Musings of a West Coast Canadian
Day 50 - What Defines a Nation?
50/365 (February 19, 2010) - I’ve been mulling this over for the past few days. For some reason, media in different parts of the world have been slagging the Olympics, Vancouver, and Canada. Interestingly, it’s generally media people who are not or have not been here to experience any part of what is happening. And I’ve also been mulling over how we differ from other places…As I was about to toss out the trash I spotted a newspaper from a couple of days ago and the front page sort of highlighted part of our collective personality.
Just look at the front page of the Canadian national paper…it highlights and celebrates the success of the Americans! And we won a gold that day…that story is highlighted (or lowlighted) in a little box in the header with the title “She’s Got it”. On one hand, there’s something wrong with that…on the other hand…I suppose that’s just us…
Our news doesn’t tend to focus on the negatives, it doesn’t tend to slag other countries all that much, it tends to celebrate rather than denigrate….. we cheer for everyone, we love the underdog (I am SO happy for the Slovak men’s hockey team right now!).
We aren’t usually an “in your face” people, we don’t usually beat our own drum very loudly, and we dont’ usually run around telling the world how great we are. So for a change, when we sat up and showed a little bit of pride…we get dumped on. And in typical Canadian fashion, we feel apologetic for it. Oh Well, we are who we are, and I for one am proud of this great big, highly multicultural country.
The Globe columnist Christie Blachford wrote an interesting column today (She’s Got the Whole World in Her Hands), it really speaks to two things. Firstly, I think it speaks to the psyche of many Canadians and, secondly, it speaks to the psyche of many successful women….sadly on both counts.
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