Hotashi - Jack’s Blog

I just read a very disturbing article about a Dutch diplomat and his wife giving up a South Korean girl to social workers, after they had adopted her seven years earlier. The reason the couple gave for giving up the child was “culture shock.” How can culture shock even be an issue when you’ve raised the kid since she was a baby! Furthermore, people should be adopting kids because they want to provide them with a good home, not because they want the kids to make them happy. There’s no such thing as “not working out” when it comes to raising children. I think the Dutch diplomat and his wife are probably racist since the South Korean girl doesn’t fit in with their other children (in terms of looks), and they are also very selfish for only thinking about themselves and not the girl.

Remembrance Day is tomorrow in Canada. These days you see many people walking around with a red poppy pinned to their jackets. We are urged to remember what the veterans did for us during the war. It’s ironic then that Remembrance Day almost completely ignores the many Chinese Canadian soldiers did for Canada during the war. Everywhere you see images of white soldiers, but where are the native Canadians, the black Canadians, the Chinese Canadians? Even at the Canadian War Museum that recently opened in Ottawa, you see no hints that any Chinese Canadians participated in the war effort.

If you dig hard enough you can find some info on the Chinese Canadian soldiers, but most people do not even know that they existed. On the Veteran Affairs Canada website, they do have a section dedicated to those forgotten soliders. Running some Google searches yield a few pieces of info here and there. But they all seem to be unanimous that the period of racism has passed, and the Chinese Canadians, in turn for their heroic service during the war, now enjoy the same privileges as other Canadians.

It’s quite sad that Canada has chosen not to acknowledge the histories of these brave men and women, who fought for the country they loved. Even now, it’s the Chinese Canadians that have to make sure that their history and heritage is not forgotten forever. There is a Chinese Canadian Military Museum in Vancouver that is dedicated to “educating the public of the Chinese fight to repeal discriminatory laws and to earn their citizenship with all the rights and privileges and stand equal with other Canadians.”

The reason why I won’t wear a poppy is because I want to remember. I remember that it wasn’t just the white people who fought for Canada. I remember the ordeals that the Japanese Canadians had to go through. I remember all the excuses given by the Canadian government to justify racism during the war. When I look at images of our war heroes — like the statue erected across from Wilfrid Laurier University, at the Veteran’s Green — I can’t help but feel a bit repulsed by all the racism and ignorance that comes with Remembrance Day.

lest we forget

I was talking to some co-workers about legalizing drugs today during lunch. The Canadian government, and the US government, view drugs as a matter of law. In reality, though, it’s really a social issue, and by punishing drug users and traffickers with harsher penalties isn’t going to solve it. If the issue is public health, then we should focus on prevention and safe drug use, instead of just throwing people in jail. If the issue is morality, then the question is, what is morality?

Alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are both legal in Canada. What makes marijuana any different? Is it just because pot smoking has always been viewed as illegal and bad, thus it must always remain so? I’m not promoting the use of marijuana, but people need to stop and think about the reasons they hold onto certain beliefs. Marijuana is progressively becoming a folkway as opposed to a mores in today’s society, and a lot of people are already pushing to legalize it.

One more thing to consider is that one of the side-effects of illegal drug trafficking is violent crimes. An example would be drug dealers trying to protect their turf, thus resulting in gun violence against other drug dealers. If drug supply is controlled by the government, then these violent crimes can be lowered. So instead of the police spending so many resources on trying to punish drug dealers/users, they can focus on more serious crimes, and as a side-effect of legalized drug, the rate at which the other crimes occur would lower too.