Subject: FW: TRIBUTE TO CANADA
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> > >
> > >This was sent to me by a former Canadian Air Force Officer, I enjoyed
> > >reading it and thought you might also enjoy reading it.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >Subject: Article from the UK Sunday Telegraph
> > >
> > >Tribute to Canada
> > >
> > >This is a good read - funny how it took someone in England to put it
> > >into words...
> > >
> > >Sunday Telegraph Article
> > >
> > >From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest nation
> > >
> > >Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph
> > >
> > > LONDON - Until the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers
> > >accidentally killed by a U.S. warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost
> > >no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops
> > >were deployed in the region.
> > >
> > > And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the
> > >world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets
> > >nearly everything Canada ever does. It seems that Canada's historic
> > >mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of
> > >complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and
> > >truly ignored.
> > >
> > > Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall,
> > >waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out,
> > >she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers
> > >serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing
> > >resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once
> > >helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet
> > >again.
> > >
> > > That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent
> > >with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in
> > >two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in
> > >two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet
> > >had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that
> > >it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.
> > >
> > > Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two
> > >world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of
> > >Canada's entire population of seven million people served in the armed
> > >forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great
> > >Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps
> > >the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
> > >
> > > Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its
> > >unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as
> > >somehow or other the work of the "British." The Second World War
> > >provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen
> > >vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against
> > >U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the
> > >Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on
> > >D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and
> > >the fourth-largest air force in the world.
> > >
> > > The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had
> > >the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in
> > >film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a
> > >campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a
> > >touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since
> > >abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
> > >
> > > So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in
> > >Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian.
> > >Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox,
> > >William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art
> > >Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become
> > >American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act
> > >of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is
> > >Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine
> > >Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.
> > >
> > > Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements
> > >of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware
> > >of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by
> > >anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the
> > >world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century
> > >have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN
> > >mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East
> > >Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
> > >
> > > Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular
> > >on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which
> > >out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their
> > >regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of
> > >self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no
> > >international credit.
> > >
> > > So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless
> > >friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather
> > >like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for
> > >honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains
> > >something of a figure of fun.
> > >
> > > It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such
> > >honour comes at a high cost. This week, four more grieving Canadian
> > >families knew that cost all too tragically well.
> > >
> > >*** ****
> > >
> > >Please pass this on or print it and give it to any of your friends or
> > >relatives who served in the Canadian Forces, it is a wonderful tribute
> > >to those who choose to serve their country and the world in our quiet
> > >Canadian way.
> > >
> > >
> > >