careful with that ink!

Going through my old mail this week, I found a set of 'George Carlin's' (actually, they're Bill Maher's material) "New Rules for 2006". Some are pretty funny, but this one struck me in particular:

New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.

Ha ha. I've seen enough Chinese characters to be able to recognize the odd one here and there. However, Chris can read Chinese and had a rather entertaining story that I can share (besides seeing the occasional reversed character on someone's back, as if copied from a mirror). It's second-hand, but happens enough to be true. Anyhoo, this girl in her Chinese class went on a class trip to China in university. The fun began when she wore a tank top, as she had a tattoo with the character for 'sexy', which, as she quickly found out, was also a slang word for 'whore'. Hilarity ensued.

Understanding implications of tattoos in other cultures is something that is sorely missed, I think. I mean, I understand that it's your body and your personal decision as to what you do with it, but there can be consequences that you miss. I met a guy in Taiwan who had always wanted to get a dragon tattoo on his shoulder, and once in Taiwan, did it. It was a really cool-looking dragon, and he enjoyed it until a summer day at the pool. Walking around the pool, he noticed several large, gangstery-looking guys watching him. On a trip to the washroom, he found himself in the company of these men in a quiet area away from the pool. "Who do you owe?" was the question presented to him, over and over. See, apparently, in the mafia in Taiwan, if someone owes them money, they tattoo that person with a dragon on their shoulder so that their associates will be able to easily identify them. They eventually let him go after a lengthy explanation. He is now more aware of his company and clothing now.

big, and small changes

Being back home for the first time was a bit of a shock. I'd been expecting people to have changed, and they did - new pets, marriages, kids, new homes. Hell, we were given so many tours of houses thatt I felt that I was in the market for a new home. That was fine. I quite enjoyed seeing old friends and how they were living now. I know I've changed a lot in the last three years, and it was fun and interesting to see how others had done so.

It was, however, the change in things, and to a lesser degree, the places that kind of got me. The little things. Motion-detecting paper towel dispensers? Giant new areas of cities? (OK, that was to be expected, actually.) Super-high gas prices? Shortly after leaving the airport in Vancouver, my stopped in the middle of a sentence while chatting with my aunt and uncle to stare, dumb-struck, at a gas sign that read $1.20 a litre. I mean, I had read about high oil prices, and that's not all that much more than in Taiwan (well, it's the equivalent of about $0.90 a litre there), but it was more of a shock being in Canadian dollars. Speaking of Canadian dollars, it's much easier to spend them here than in SE Asia. It was hard shelling out as much for a single meal as would feed me in Laos for a week (I wish I were joking).

I love the wide-open prairies, I really do, but the amont of space between things has been driving me mad. I'm almost used to high densities of people, so the room here feels astounding. The amount of driving it took to get anywhere seemed to be too much - to simply go to Saskatoon was half the time it took to cross Taiwan. In the beginning, I kept thinking, "Well, you could put another whole building there!" Even in town, I desperately missed my scooter and having things near me. Parking lots galore seemed like concrete deserts surrounding a Wal Mart- or Safeway-flavoured mesa. The things people drive, too - I sit in the parking lot in my mom's little Toyota (thanks for the error correction, Dad!) and feel dwarfed by SUVs, Hummers, giant vans and huge trucks. I saw one Hummer in the entire time I was in Asia, and very few SUVs, so it's a bit of a shock. Ther just isn't room for those cars in there. It's like trying to stuff an elephant into a square hole. I don't know where the money comes from for gas for these things. I certainly would be broke soon.

Anyhoo, that's a few of my impressions that I've garnered while traveling around this continent.

There are some nice things to see here, though. Check out my Saskatchewan pictures (there's a few bonus Vancouver pics in there, too).

patriotism

Patriotism is certainly a topic that's been on my mind since I've landed in the US of A. I think I saw more American flags my first day here than I saw in my entire time in Canada. I'm not exaggerating. Every second house, it seemed, had a flag on the mailbox or hanging over the door. I've continued to see this trend throughout my travels, including the biggest flag I've ever seen in my life on the front of the NYSE and a church that featured the American flag and symbols more than the cross. It was a church with missionary ideals at the forefront. On the side, missionary work tears me apart - good work is done, it just seems to come with strings attached. But that's another story.

Patriotism is great, don't get me wrong. I was quite the Canadian promoter when I was in the country and abroad (it seems less important now). However, and we encountered this wherever we went, it can also lead to xenophobia and even hatred, contaminating a good thing. In Taiwan, the law now says that foreigners cannot teach in kindergartens that had been previously set up for exposing the kids to English early*. Having lived abroad and traveled a bit, I've seen that all countries just want people to visit, spend their money, and leave, not live and work there. It's a lot of work to get a working visa in another country. Part of the reason, especially in poorer countries, is to stop people from taking the higher-paying jobs that locals could especially do (VSO is an excellent organization that fills this need quite well, only sending workers to fill needs that cannot be fulfilled within the country). In Korea, there was a video made and shown on TV supposedly showing foreigner English teachers doing drugs, having sex, and committing crimes (although, on the flip side, some anonymous individual there posted on an on-line forum once (or more? I've only heard about it once, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen other times) about how to pick up Korean women. Then, of course, there's those here in North America who believe immigrants are the cause of local crime, stealing our jobs, taking advantage of health care and welfare, and so forth, and we need walls and laws to keep them out. A homonogenous society is interesting, but it can get a little boring - almost every Taiwanese person I knew enjoyed eating out at different places.

Anyway. I'm typing this as Chris drives around, taking care of errands, and the main street of Romeo has banners with stars and stripes on every second light post. I still double take at the number of flags I see every day, just driving around. Husky-sized flags (my Candadian readers know what I'm talking about) are fairly common, and there are even larger-sized ones here. SUPPORT OUR TROOPS is a common anthem on bumpers. I've never seen so many people wearing their country's flag integrated on their clothing (continuing after America Day). Of course, in Taiwan, I had people correcting me in the street as to how to call them (Taiwanese, not Chinese), and a defining characteristic of being Canadian is being not-American.

The ease with which patriotism can be exploited and tainted is scary. It's the birth of so many Us versus Them fights, when I've found that it's so much easier to think of it as We are on this earth together, so We might as well get along.

*It's a fact that language is learned better at earlier ages, especially through exposure.

a trip down a new lane

I visited the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History yesterday, and man, it was eye-opening. See, as I previously mentioned, in Canada, we take How We Screwed Over the Natives (and there's plenty of material for that), but there is nothing (somewhat obviously) about the development of slavery. We never had a war - we had a king who simply (ha, right) abolished all slavery in the colonials and at home. This museum educated me as to what an arduous fight it's been, and continues to be. They started with a history of Africa, followed by the long history of slavery. There was a re-creation of a ship's hold, with people placed on their sides so that slavers could cram more of them in. There was a long section on the continued and increased restriction of slaves' rights (which I'm also learning about reading A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present, by Howard Zinn, including the creation of the middle class to keep the elite safe from a potential black revolt. Interesting stuff.)

I found out the Civil War was not caused by the call to abolish slavery (that was just a call to inflame the hearts of the South), but a tariff war. Lincoln could care less:

"My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some of the slaves and leaving others alone I would also do that." - Lincoln to Horace Greeley of the NY Tribune August 22, 1862.

So much for lofty ideals. One of the most surprising things I discovered was that Mississippi, the last state to pass the 13th Amendment (that which abolished slavery) did not do so until 1995. 1995?! How do you leave something like that lying around? Kentucky didn't do it until 1976, either. Everyone else? Over a hundred years before. I mean, as it turns out, it was mostly clerical, but it was more than just an accident. Tennessee had the same problem with the 15th Amendment, the one guaranteeing everyone the right to vote. Again, clerical, but it stems from more.

Some of the more recent stuff I knew, but what interested me was the tour guide that went by with a group and was appealing to them (it was a family reunion, rife with adults and children alike) to help themselves simply by reading, reading, and more reading. Not only their history, but anything. Black education numbers are still lower than average, and increasing those stats are the only way that they can get on an even keel with everyone else.

There was even an exhibit on stereotypical material produced throughout the US in the 19th century, then in Japan (and surrounding areas) in the 20th, even continuing today. The Jim Crow phenomenon, it's called, representing the repression of black rights. From Aunt Jemima to blackface to toys exploiting racial stereotypes like big lips, a love for chicken and watermelon, and (of course, with any negative stereotype) poverty and laziness, they had a large collection borrowed from the Jim Crow Museum (down when I checked it, FYI) in Big Rapids, Michigan. The growing phenomenon is in the Far East. Chris and I saw this in Taiwan with Black Man toothpaste (if you know Darlie toothpaste, it used to be called Darkie toothpaste, right there on the package), and the stereotypes abound over there. There aren't many black people - Chris had a friend who was black and was constantly asked while traveling through China if he was Michael Jordan.

It was incredibly interesting, seeing all of this for the first time. I can say we have a similar situation in Canada, but we don't, and it's hard to say what's worse. The Natives never were slaves, and they weren't torn from a whole nother continent (although being thrown in some of those residential schools sounded pretty terrible). However, the whole idea of reservations isn't peaches and cream either. White people sure were (are?) good at giving it to non-white people.

I did notice that there were almost no white people in the museum - a few people other than us, but not many. And it's not like it's isolated - there are five other museums within the area, two of the biggest ones right next door (the Art Museum and the Science Centre). But you can't force people to hear something they don't want to, I guess. History does have a way of repeating itself if we don't make ourselves aware of it, and I'm seeing more and more evidence of that as we experience other countries' and cultures' histories. I guess the only think I can say is to echo that guide: read, read, read.

spider-man

I tried rock-climbing tonight, thanks to the suggestion of my awesome hosts, Jason and Roisin, who have been at least eighteen kinds of wonderful while I'm in Ottawa (I'll detail the others later). I know my forearms will be sore tomorrow, and my fingers will probably be curled like the Wicked Witch herself's, but it was just fun. I highly recommend it, though doing it with someone experienced pays uncountable benefits.