We Canadians live in such a comfortable cocoon. Because we have a government and social culture that is, for the most part, rational and compassionate, we look askance at the political infighting and partisan loyalties that afflict our neighbour to the south.
We find it hard to believe that 300-million presumably right-minded people – those who qualify to sit on a jury – allow themselves to be governed by a man who doesn’t seem to know the truth from one hour to the next, and who takes umbrage at the least of slights.
“Umbrage” –to take offence, to react strongly. It implies flying off the handle at minor slights.
But recent events suggest we Canadians have tunnel vision. Obsessed with President Tweet, we have ignored an even more explosive personality on the international stage: Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
The National Post’sTerry Glavin describes him as “a chubby 32-year-old war criminal with a taste for fine art, French mansions, and luxury yachts, [who] launched a barbaric bombing campaign in Yemen that has resulted in the deaths of at least 15,000 people and has left half the population of that desperately poor country at the brink of famine.”
Retaliation rampant
The furore started when Canada sent a tweet that said, “Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #SaudiArabia.... We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrightsactivists.”
The vehemence of bin Salman’s response outdid even Trump’s tantrums.
He immediately
· expelled Canada’s ambassador;
· froze new trade with Canada;
· ordered his global asset managers to dispose of their Canadian equities, bonds and cash holdings “no matter the cost”;
· pulled 16,000 Riyadh-funded students out of Canadian universities and medical schools;
· transferred Saudi patients receiving medical care out of Canadian hospitals;
· suspended Saudi Arabian Airlines flights to Toronto;
· and stopped buying barley and wheat from Canada.
He also accused Canada of meddling in his sovereign nation’s internal affairs.
His anger ignores the fact that the Canadian tweet used a relatively diplomatic term, “urge.” It didn’t “demand,” it didn’t “insist.” It also specifically referred to “peaceful” activists.
Should Canada have made its view known through traditional diplomatic channels? Possibly. Although Trump has pretty much rendered conventional diplomacy obsolete with his own inflammatory tweets.
Like Trump, bin Salman takes any criticism of his policies personally.
Saudi Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir ruled out mediation. He warned of further measures to further punish Canada. It was Canada’s fault, he said: “There is nothing to mediate. A mistake has been made and a mistake should be corrected.”
Different sets of values
How can a simple – and relatively mild – tweet lead to such a conflagration?
Basically, think, we misread the core beliefs of the Saudi ruling family. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, the ultimate patriarchy.
As such, it bans political activism. It deals harshly with dissidents. One of the activists for whom Canada pleaded has been sentenced to 100 lashes and ten years in prison.
Last month, it crucified – yes, crucified! – a man convicted of theft, murder, and attempted rape.
Earlier this year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did permit women to drive -- the last country in the world to do so. But many of the those who campaigned for women's right to drive have since been arrested and imprisoned.
In the same way, though, the Crown Prince failed to recognize Canadian core beliefs.
The new national religion
As reader Steve Roney, currently teaching in the United Arab Emirates, pointed out recently, we no longer expect to impose our religion, Christianity, on other nations. But we will not tolerate their rejection of our science, our technology (including medicine), and especially our human rights.
These have become an unofficial religion in Canada. We expect any nation, anywhere, to welcome our polio vaccines. Our mines. Our money.
And whether it’s Indigenous peoples in Canada, victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, slaves in Sudan, or young girls facing genital mutilation in Somalia, human rights are sacred.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared, “Canadians have always expected our government to speak strongly, firmly, clearly and politely about the need to respect human rights at home and around the world... We will continue to stand up for Canadian values and indeed for universal values and human rights at any occasion.”
Trudeau is right not to back down. If human rights are indeed our new religion, they are not negotiable. Canada must speak up in their favour. Even if taking a stand has economic consequences.
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Copyright © 2018 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
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YOUR TURN
Clearly, the subject of amending history matters to you. I had to leave out several thoughtful letters for space reasons.
Mary-Margaret Boone wrote, “I don't agree with changing names to reflect a modern lens on historical events. It takes things out of the context of their times. But of course it has been done for similar reasons, in place names like changing [the city] from Berlin to Kitchener and the road signs east of Peterborough that read Bastard Township…
Will the statue of Joseph Brant come down because he owned black slaves and had sexual relations with them? My grandparents’ housekeeper was Black/Mohawk and related to Joseph Brant through these relationships.
“My particular UCC hero is Nellie McClung who dropped down a notch when I learned that she embraced the racist program of eugenics, very popular in her era. It doesn't take away from the momentous work she did for women's rights.
Yes we need a change in attitude and not a white washing of historical events. We need to learn the positive and the negative and put it in the context of its time and learn from the lessons of the past.”
Stephanie McClellan had similar thoughts: “I, too, have wondered about this removal of names and statues. I can see both sides of it, but I come down heaviest on the side of the one who said that if we do not remember our past, we are doomed to repeat it. In a few places, rather than taking down the monument or tearing away the historical record, a second plaque has been added to the first one that explains some of the outcomes of the person’s decisions that have led to difficult histories.
“If we are waiting to memorialize someone who does not have a blemish on their record or in their history, we will never put up another plaque or monument again knowing that in the future it will be torn down or defaced as our progress and enlightenment changes. Heroes become heroes because they have taken a risk to make a difference for the better in their culture and their world. It will always get them into trouble and will likely be shown at second glance that there were flaws in their character and thinking somewhere along the line.”
Isabel Gibson saw the push for renaming as a form of scapegoating: “It seems to be hard for us to accept that there aren't any perfect people, and our perception on these imperfections increases dramatically when we're doing the viewing across decades or centuries of societal change.
“I suspect some of the ardour with which we pursue those long dead is that it's easier to confess someone else's sins.”
Clive Simpson: “It seems to me that rewriting history is our way of avoiding responsibility for our part in the current status of First Nations Issues. We need to get at the business of creating a new relationship that doesn't maintain the oppression under which they live and which we allow to be maintained by government excuses.”
But Jim Kirkwood argued, “To change a name and explain why is one way to change attitude.
We need to admit we are now proven wrong in history and can do some justice now. e.g. The controversy over Egerton Ryerson, founder of our school system here in Ontario vs. the role he played in residential school policy, brought up much discussion of history and justice and present obligations.”
Steve Roney took a broader perspective: “Canada is, in world terms, seriously lacking in history, shared culture, and a sense of place… The very last thing we need is a ‘Cultural Revolution’ to smash and tear down any relics of our shared history. Yet that is exactly what is happening.
“The drive to erase Lord Stanley from Vancouver history is apparently simply because using an aboriginal name is supposedly intrinsically better than using the name of some ‘white’ Canadian. Aboriginal history trumps shared Canadian history.
“Both the doctrine of human equality and the normal responsibilities of government dictate that public lands should be kept and used for the benefit of the population as a whole, not for some ethnic subgroup or class. That logically includes park names. To rename Stanley Park would be, not to put too fine a point on it, government racism, systemic racism.”
Incidentally, Hanny Kooyman wrote to “thank Steve Roney for his very helpful insight” [in last Sunday’s letters, about the effects of medication on mental illness].
Back to renaming places, John Shaffer offered American examples: “I was and am comfortable with renaming an Alaskan mountain from Mt. McKinley to Denali. Changing the name back to its original name seems to be a good idea to everyone except Ohio politicians. McKinley never stepped foot on Alaskan soil. Someone wanted to honor him, so they named a mountain after him, completely ignoring the fact that it already had a name.
“There are also efforts to rename Mt. Rainier to its original name native American name, Tahoma. I would vote for that, too.
“May we be spared from things being named after our so-called President, beyond the things he has already named after himself.”
Lee Claus took a middle ground: “Some names, I would gladly change, and some others, it doesn’t matter to me.
“However, rather than tearing down statues, maybe an easier way to satisfy history would be to simply rewrite the accolades to include some of the more hurtful deeds that the person was recognized for.
“I’m sure a good wordsmith could, with a few short lines of copy, balance all the good and wonderful history that most bronze plaques portray. That way, the praise would be balanced with some of the unfortunate down-side deeds that were employed by the honoured person. This would be the beginning of a more truthful history of the deeds of one place on a pedestal.
“Of course, this might create a rip-roaring business for the makers of bronze …
“Certainly, our school systems could be more honest if they included a more accurate teaching of history as well. But that’s another subject.”
So did Gloria Jorgenson: “Saskatoon has a bridge named for Gordie Howe, unquestionably one of the greatest hockey players who ever lived. I'm pretty certain that if it was discovered that he raped or embezzled or committed some equally nefarious deeds, his name would come off that bridge in a flash. It would not alter his accomplishments as a hockey player but it would change the way we saw him.
“Changing these names does not ‘rewrite history’ but it does acknowledge that these people were more inventive, creative or accomplished than most of us but still only human and not to be idealized.”
Tom Watson picked up on my reference to Russia renaming places: “Author Julian Barnes, in his novel The Noise of Time, writes that the Stalin era attempted to write history from the inside rather than correcting it afterwards. The Russians did this through insisting that, in order to keep in favour with their government, composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich compose only classical music that was appreciated by Stalin. The theory was that if you keep history clean while it's being written you don't have to worry about rewriting it later.
“Say we were to start right now to do this in Canada...what would guarantee that our particular mark on history was of such value and virtue that it would forever withstand the test of those who come long after we have shuffled away?”
Rob Brown, also in Saskatoon, had these reactions: “When people want to re-write history, I get very disturbed.
“I've always been a student of our history — the things that made us Canadian. Good background for any journalist (like you and me); for any citizen, really.
“Changing a few names here and there doesn't change the history that key individuals produced. So let Sir John A., Lord Stanley, Cornwallis, and the rest of the lot keep their buildings and the shame which rightly goes with the names on those buildings. And let us teach why there is shame attached to them. Let us not be the "historically-illiterate, culturally-entitled white people" turned out by a squeamish education system which cannot look our history square in the eyes and name it for what it is.
My apologies to Frank Martens, James Russell, Cliff Boldt, Anne McRae, Bonita Garrett, and Bob Rollwagen for not including their letters.
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think too many links constitute spam.)
Ralph Milton’s latest project is a kind of Festival of Faith, a retelling of key biblical stories by skilled storytellers like Linnea Good and Donald Schmidt, designed to get people talking about their own faith experience. It’s a series of videos available on Youtube. I suggest you start with his introductory section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u6qRclYAa8
Ralph’s “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal – is still available. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet