Myth # 6 "We have so much to learn from
the third world oral tradition"
If you believe this one, you probably believe that the lowest ebb in
human development was the Ozzie & Harriet, Leave it to Beaver model
of a despised 'white-bread' North America. Would someone kindly explain
why the promise of that very life spurred millions upon millions of immigrants
to come in search of it.
Was it simply easier to ridicule at close quarters? The brutal realities
of life in third world countries are enforced with a rigid caste-system
and pecking-order. Let's be very clear: we neither mean to endorse, nor
imply, that local implementation might be fun, but how do the 'haves' in
the Third World ensure that the 'have nots' know their place - and stay
there? The 'have nots' are given no quarter, no concessions. If that means
stepping over bodies begging or dying in the streets, well there'll always
be more where they came from. The rationale is that if you give some people
2.54 centimetres, they'll take 1.6093 kilometers. If this sounds like your
local 'special interest' group, it's either a coincidence - or racist of
you to notice.
Are Canadians equipped to compete with the ruthlessness born of such
brutal realities? What is it exactly, that we 'know' about other cultures?
Do multicultural values extend to marriage-by-capture? The Hmong may think
it should. Does our committment to diversity include genital mutilation
(politely, but inaccurately called female circumcision) when it's performed
on four year old children? Does pan-culturalism mean that we must enthusiastically
embrace the practice of suttee or slavery if that happens to be common
practice 'back home'?
Well,
we don't really know and never can know. We are not encouraged (or permitted)
to discuss issues like this. It seems ridiculous to insist that newcomers
to Canada abide by Canadian laws, when 'our arrogant, ethnocentric traditions'
must not be 'imposed' on them. Indeed, both the Moslem and black communities
have lobbied for special extra-mural legal systems 'more in line with our
community standards'. The committee responsible for chaplaincy in federal
prisons has recently called for 'aboriginal circle sentencing' and we all
learned what jury nullification meant when OJ was found not guilty. We
are informed that "only education can eradicate racism." What
kind of "education" do we mean?
Indoctrination? So history has a 'Eurocentric' bias? The inescapable
fact of the matter is that most histories were recorded by the people who
had a written language. Must Columbus be: (A).-
a saint, or (B.) - a monster?
Perhaps he was merely a man who beat the odds and crossed the Atlantic
500 years ago. That he did so with a hold full of small-pox bacillus seems
unlikely. The liklihood that his ships carried a cargo of venereal disease
on the return trip receives considerably less media-play. Again, what do
we know of other cultures? Aladdin? Dances with wolves? Roots? Apart from
the relentless anti-European sub-text , most of our 'knowledge' predicates
on a set of cutesy cultural cartoons. It's easy enough to see why - underline
twice for emphasis - all the positive virtues, but that does not tell us
anything meaningful about who these people are, what they believe, what
their real history might be, what is sacred to them and why. We just occupy
the same hunk of real estate and pay our taxes. What a great country.