 FaxCap
join:2002-05-25
Surrey, BC
 ·Shaw
| [Serious] Article in a British newspaper about Canada British newspaper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is
funny how it took someone in England to put it into words......
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, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the
world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets
nearly everything Canada ever does.. It seems that Canada '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 Canada pays for sharing the North American
continent with the United States , and for being a selfless friend of
Britain 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 it's purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in
two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
Almost 10% of Canada '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 Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120
Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during
which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone.
Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth
largest air force in the world. The world thanked Canada 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, Hollywood 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
Hollywood 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, Mike Weir 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, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the
achievements of its 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
non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , 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 United States knows about the stoic and
selfless friendship its northern neighbor has given it in Afghanistan ?
Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honorable
things for honorable 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 honor comes at a high
cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that
cost all too tragically well.
Lest we forget.
FaxCap |
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 JuggernautIrreverent or irrelevant?Premium
join:2006-09-05
Kelowna, BC
kudos:2 | Well spoken, and well said. |
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 StyvasGolf Canucks GolfPremium
join:2004-09-15
Hamilton, ON | reply to FaxCap
That article is ten years old, but still very apt. Thanks for sharing. |
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 milnoc
join:2001-03-05
H3B
kudos:1 | reply to FaxCap
We still get tulips every year from Holland.  |
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| The tulips from Holland are given in thanks to the Canadian people for sheltering Princess Juliana while she gave birth to Princess Margriet in 1943 at the Ottawa Civic hospital. Princess Margriet was born a Dutch citizen in the hospital by virtue of her mother's citizenship and her mother's special status in Canada as a member of the Dutch Royal family out of the reach of the Nazi's in Holland. There are millions of tulips in Ottawa and about 10,000 new ones are received from Holland every year in May.
-Bob |
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milnoc
join:2001-03-05
H3B
kudos:1 | Unofficially, I'm also guessing it's because we liberated Holland during WWII. Even to this day, they're still grateful for what we've done for them.
On another note, one other person who in a way recognized Canada's importance was Adolph Hitler. He ordered his extremely loyal (and vicious) SS troops to stand guard at the Vimy memorial in order to protect it against vandalism not only by Allied forces, but also by his own troops!
We seem to get more respect from our enemies than from our so-called "friends".
--
Watch my future television channel's public test broadcast!
»thecanadianpublic.com/live |
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 DKSDamn Kidney StonesPremium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON
kudos:2
 ·Bell Sympatico
| reply to Bob Anderson
said by Bob Anderson:The tulips from Holland are given in thanks to the Canadian people for sheltering Princess Juliana while she gave birth to Princess Margriet in 1943 at the Ottawa Civic hospital. Princess Margriet was born a Dutch citizen in the hospital by virtue of her mother's citizenship and her mother's special status in Canada as a member of the Dutch Royal family out of the reach of the Nazi's in Holland. There are millions of tulips in Ottawa and about 10,000 new ones are received from Holland every year in May.
-Bob
I believe that Canada also declared the maternity ward in the Civic extra territorial so that Princess Margriet was born in international territory and able to claim her Dutch citizenship.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care. |
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| Correct, DKS. I did see a plaque commemorating the event at the hospital decades ago. I don't know if it still exists because the hospital has been renovated so many times since.
-Bob |
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FaxCap
join:2002-05-25
Surrey, BC Reviews:
·Shaw
| reply to FaxCap
Ya ya.....I've told this story before but it's worth telling again...
1984
Ordered a small beer and a "toastie" (Dutch snack) in an Amsterdam
pub. I was wearing a Canadian flag t-shirt. Owner brings it over and
asks if we're Canadian. "Yes we are". "First one is always free for
Canadians", says he.
Still and always will be VERY proud to be Canadian!
FaxCap |
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 vue666I'm in the prime of my senilityPremium
join:2007-12-07
Halifax, NS | Very nice...thanks for sharing... |
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PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:13 Reviews:
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·voip.ms
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·Gizmo5
| reply to milnoc
said by milnoc:On another note, one other person who in a way recognized Canada's importance was Adolph Hitler. He ordered his extremely loyal (and vicious) SS troops to stand guard at the Vimy memorial in order to protect it against vandalism not only by Allied forces, but also by his own troops!
I knew of Vimy but not of this.
A fascinating story.
»www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/···&k=33224 |
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