To Be a Canadian Abroad

This site is deep on inspiration, and a little light on explaining what my philosophy is on what, exactly needs to change.  This is mostly due to available time and resources so far.  But maybe I can help by sharing some thoughts I’ve already laid down on paper.

To Be a Canadian Abroad is about 3 pages of love and frustration about Canada that I wrote in response to our involvement in Bali.  It’s a little long for a blog post, but here’s an excerpt (and the complete piece can be found here):

“Sitting in a library in England on a late December night seems like an unlikely place to be able to change anything in Canada. Distance hinders direct action, but does provide the benefit of perspective: once I am outside Canada, I can see our country more clearly for what it is. Only when I leave Canada and compare it with the other places I have lived, be it Australia, Senegal or the UK in my case, can I truly see the extent of my country’s precarious, still-innocent and naïve beauty, and fret at its subversive, emerging ugliness.

“To a degree, we still have the respect of the world. But we must continue to earn it, not simply inherit it from the last generation’s courage and integrity. Although I have lost the bulk of my faith in our politicians, I still believe in the power of average Canadians to make a difference, both within our borders and abroad. I still believe that, in spite of the vast distance that separates us from most of the world, we share a connection with it that has not been extinguished. I still believe that passion can triumph over indifference, that collective good trumps self interest, and that Canada has an important and positive role to play in the world. And if it is ordinary Canadians that stand up and seize that role, then so much the better.”