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January 24, 2007
In the quiet attic
A friend from Canada now in New York writes:
Canada is like the quiet attic above the really great party, an American once told me. Upon further contemplation, I think he may be right. We're the neighbour in the attic, just trying to hear ourselves think over the insufferably loud music booming from below.We commiserate over our living location and we smugly commend ourselves for our well-swept floors and our low cost of living. But – if we could – would we get rid of our neighbours? Not a chance. When the blizzards set in, who shovels the walk? When there is a threat from outside, who watches from the window and protects the house? The raucous neighbours on the ground floor do.
We sit up in the attic and look down upon them for the melodramatic arguments that we hear through the floorboards, but the house insurance is in their name and, whether or not we admit it, we lucked out to get these guys on our side.
Living in the American capital – where the barista at Starbucks is more likely to ask your preferred political party than your preferred beverage – I was disappointed to discover that Canada's self-proclaimed reputation as an influential peacekeeper rarely, if ever, comes up in discussions of international politics.
Canada is an international peacekeeper? That's news to me.
(The sad thing is that most "international peacekeepers" try to keep the peace even when the peace is immoral or corrupt--witness the role of the UN in Oil for Food or the OAS's refusal to disturb the peace in Darfur--but that's a topic for another day.)
Posted by adrianjo at January 24, 2007 10:21 PM