I was getting some copas (drinks) with my German friend Steffen and his Canadian friend Danielle. Never having met her before, I asked her where she was from.
"New Brunswick," she said.
"Oh, is that right above Maine?" (I took a lucky stab, knowing that at least some of Canada has gotta be above Maine.)
"Yeah!" she said. "Do you know Canadian geography?"
"Not really," I answered. She pulled out a map that she had drawn for someone else. "Wait, let me try to draw what I do know," I said. I knew Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
"We´re you neighbor!" she said disapprovingly. "How do you know only four provinces?" She gave me the others.
"Well, do you know every state in America?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Wow."
"We had to learn the states and capitals in school," she said. "Americans don´t take the trouble to learn because they´re too egotistical. No offense."
"Maybe it´s because America is a bigger player on the world stage," I said. "Do you know every province in France'" I asked Steffen. "And do you know every province in Russia?" I asked Danielle.
"Russia isn´t our neighbor."
"They´re your neighbor to the west."
"There´s an ocean separating us."
I didn´t press the point.
"Do you know who our Prime Minister is?" she asked.
I tried to think. "I know he´s conservative," I said, cringing. That´s one I should have known.
"Steven Harper," she said smugly. "He´s the reason we´re in Afghanistan."
"Oh," I said. "So, do you, um, support that decision?" It was pretty clear she didn´t.
"No, I don´t. Canada´s role has always been as peacekeeper. We shouldn´t be fighting."
I asked her why there was a difference between fighting for peace and handing out food for peace (or whatever it is she meant by "peacekeeping" -- some people mean fighting). If both create peace...
She buckled a little there. "The point is, we shouldn´t be fighting the US´s wars," she said. "Especially one as pointless as Afghanistan." I raised an eyebrow or two. I´ll be the first to say that the poppy, heroine, warlord, and violence ridden country is in trouble, but I think we had a good purpose.
"America just wants the oil," she said. That´s a line I hear a lot.
-- Except -- alarm bells were going off in my head -- it didn´t make sense in a conversation about Afghanistan. I had caught her in an outright falsity.
Usually, I try to respond reasonably to this kind of rhetoric and explain that, while neither war has been what I would consider a net good for the world, America, or the countries themselves, America did not intend the chaos and bloodbath. Except -- here I could be a bit more pithy.
"Afghanistan doesn´t have oil," I said.
She paused. Even she recognized that she´d made a mistake. "Well, America just wants to control the Middle East situation," she said.
"Let´s not conflate Iraq and Afghanistan," I said, not letting go of the huge error.
"The problem is that we don´t know why we´re in there," she said. "It was never clear."
I flipped a little.
"A terrorist organization called Al-Qaeda killed 3000 people," I said. "Afghanistan´s government, the Taliban, was protecting them. The US went in with a UN resolution to take out a government that was protecting a group that killed 3000 of our citizens. What´s unclear about that?"
My voice was level, but I stared at her like she was crazy.
She offered this pitiful explanation:
"Well, unless you´re super-political, it´s hard to know what´s going on." (That´s the way the brain works, I almost said; you need to expend effort to learn. But I kept quiet.) "We just get the news that yet another Canadian has died."
"Well, you want peace," I said. "A lot of Afghanistanis have died. But most didn´t die during the invasion. Most died after, in the chaos, and this is even more true for Iraq. The chaos might be our fault, but taking Canada -- or Germany, for that matter -- out of Afghanistan will just create more chaos and bloodbath."
Later, after she had caught the metro back to her house, Steven and I had another copa.
"I got really angry," I said. "It´s been a while since I got that angry in a discussion about politics."
"Yeah," he said. "Everyone´s entitled to their own opinion."
Had I been unfair? I wondered. Had I not given her opinion a fair hearing?
No. I had been TOTALLY fair.
"Sure, of course. But her story was wrong," I said. "She says oil, and that positively can´t be the reason. What happened on September 11 is pretty clearly the reason. So to try to make it seem like it was something else -- it´s a little disrespectful to the 3000 people who died."
"Yeah, and also, the fact that the US went in the a UN resolution is very important," he said.
"That´s true too," I said. "Here´s the thing. I think it would have been better if I had stayed calm. But I also think I was totally justified to be angry."
A few nights later, I was out again with Steffen, this time at O´Neils, an Irish bar in Sol. We met a German girl and a girl from Northern Ireland.
The anti-American attacks came again, hot and heavy.
There are 3 types of anti-America attacks.
1. The US has done bad stuff in the past.
2. The US is doing bad stuff now.
3. The US treats their own poor badly.
This lovely bar conversation saw all three.
The first US beef came up in the form of past US support for Saddaam and the Taliban. I explained that, while the support was probably a bad idea, looking back now with 20-20 hindsight is unfair when the USSR seemed so mighty and dangerous back then. (And moreover, if we go back far enough, every group has a legitimate complaint about another group. Germany doesn´t have such a clean record from the ´40s. England, France, Spain and Italy were careless colonizers. I could go on.)
Obviously, the second US beef came up. It always does, when we´re fighting two wars, one without a UN resolution. Both wars had good intentions, I said, as I usually do. I also honestly said that I was part of the Iraq protests.
The third came up in the form of our healthcare system, our welfare system. our slums, and our response to Katrina. I agreed that changes needed to be made to the healthcare system. I tentatively agreed that our welfare system could be more comprehensive, but I cautioned against welfare systems that were so "comprehensive" that they took away the incentive to work. By the time we (they) got to slums and Katrina, I was spent.
I used to say that I wasn´t patriotic. The heavy symbolism put me off -- the flag-waving, the group expressions of allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands, "One Nation, under God" -- and that kind of patriotism still makes uncomfortable.
But while I continue to push against the group shows of loyalty through symbols, by the most basic definition of patriotism, I am patriotic. I am proud of my country.
As far as I can tell, we are the oldest continuous democracy still in existence. We have a free press, we have freedom of religion, and we are largely free to speak our minds. We are go-getters and innovators. Slums be damned: of the countries our population size or larger (there are only two others), we have the highest standard of living and the most equality of wealth. We are still the land of opportunity, with the most immigrants in the world. We have absorbed more than 20 million legal immigrants over the past quarter-century.
America has caused a lot of bad, and we still do. But I think that, all in all, America is a force for good. And I am proud to be part of that force.
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5 comments:
haha, those conversations sound like the ones we have. oh, politics.
i still think we (canada) shouldn't be fighting in retaliation to the terrorist attack. i don't remember if i told you this, but my mother could have been one of those people killed. she was in new york city and had a meeting in the twin towers at 9am that day (apparently the meeting was moved but at the time, i did not know this). i was at home sick (well, playing hooky, same difference) and turned on the television to the first tower falling. i freaked out, to say the least. my mom called a few moments after the second tower fell to let us know she was okay and trying to leave the country to come back home. i still think, even to this day, even if she was in those towers and had died, i still would no support the war. not because of the americans, not because i think it's a stupid reason but because i simply disagree with war.
unfortunately, also, i have to disagree with "highest standard of living and the most equality of wealth" how can you have one of the highest living standards without proper health care? do you truly believe there is more equality of wealth in the united states than canada (one of the two you were refering to)?
ps: it's my last weekend so i'll let you know what's going on once i know... let's party :)
Hmm... if your mother had died in that attack, and you didn't want to go out and wipe out those religious Zealots, then I would say you had some issues.
I know for a fact that if any loved one of mine was a casualty in that attack, I would be first in line to put a bullet to their head without even thinking it twice.
Andrew, I am truly impressed with this blog. It honestly caught my attention and it made me realize the point of view you tried to make to these people who know so little about the situation. Moreover, I feel that you handled the situation with the Canadian girl quite well; she clearly had NO knowledge of the reason behind going into Afghanistan. I don't support the war in any of the two countries (Iraq & Afghanistan) but we must be realistic- wars will always be part of the human race. With that said, the U.S. has a very good reason to be in Afghanistan. On the other hand, if the Canadian girl had used her arguments to say that the U.S. shouldn't be in Iraq then this conversation would have been a totally different one.
Andrew, one must always be in touch with his or her nationality; spending time outside of the U.S. has allowed you to come in touch with your patriotic side, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that because just as the U.S. has inflicted harm, it has also served important roles all over the world and has helped nations overcome major struggles. Be proud to be an American :)
brit - population size.
thanks for the comment. i don't know who anonymous was, but i, for one, understand where you're coming from. war so often makes losers out of both sides. but i think it's important that countries be able to wage wars of self-defense.
It's so interesting that you bring this up, because though we had to have expected it for you, traveling the world and receiving the brunt of the anti-American spew, I never thought I'd experience it at college in the states.
What I love about my college it its diversity--so I love getting in debates with my friends who split their childhood between China and France, for example. But perhaps what's most remarkable for me is my Canadian roommate. All international students are required to arrive early for international student orientation, so when I came for my pre-orientation program mid-August, she was already here.
All readers should brace themselves here, because what I say might sound a bit cocky but in no way is it intended in that manner--I actually intend to show how humbled I was:
I learned quickly that she's from Vancouver, which is very near Seattle. I learn that she went to boarding school near the states, and had been all over the US. The only difference in her speech was the stereotypical "eh" and she says "sorry" like "sore-y" and we got along famously. I teased her that she had to show up for the orientation, implying that the thought that she had to assimilate to American culture was foolish. She agreed, and we laughed. But as time went on, she began comparing life here to life at home (makes sense, all I do is compare the grim New England mornings to the twenty palm trees I can see from my bedroom window back home), but she was comparing Americans to Canadians, not Bostonians to Vancouverians. This was unsettling for me, but I couldn't put my finger on why.
Then the day the Canadian dollar matched the US dollar came around, in September I think. She was bragging and it clicked--Canada is a separate culture and government. They exist as a separate entity from the United States. Their form of government is different, they have their own intracountry rivalries, baseball means nothing to them and hockey is for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What was humbling was that this was a shock. I always assumed that Canada just chilled up North, being a little scared and a little confident being next-door neighbors to the 80-pound gorilla that is the United States, not really doing anything at all. She quizzed me once on the Canadian provinces and I got to five (British Colombia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta). I quizzed her on the states with an online game and she got 48. She has now started teaching herself the capitols, which I will never be able to fully retain. Perhaps it's growing up in California, the most self-centered state in the union, but my knowledge of Canadian, let alone American, geography is minimal.
I'm not sure of why I shared that story with you and the internet, but I did and it'd be a waste of time if I deleted it now. It was just humbling and astounding to discover the independent entity that is Canada--next thing you know someone will tell me the mid-west has an interesting culture.
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