Don't Play With Guns

Telling the Americans not to play with guns is like telling the Canadians not to play hockey or the Chinese not to eat Chinese food. Good luck !!!

Canada and Miserable Humans

Canada may not be as neutral and peaceful as you think. It is only a joke that everything is made in China. Canada creates not only syrup and hockey stars. It also creates weapons and killing machines for profits. War is an extremely profitable business that Canada has now got itself into.

Forgive my cynicism about Canada's foreign policy, which now largely follows that of Uncle Sam. Let's talk policy is no more. Let's drop a bomb has become a life-killing but money-making policy. Diplomacy doesn't pay. Destruction does. Miserable humans !!!

Spring Shooting

In the news, 6 were killed in suburban Houston, Texas, including 4 children. Is this even news, or rather just the same old story? Mass shooting is nothing new in America. It happens frequently. Even the headline of the news article I read implies that it is something seasonal.

To be fair, the headline of 'Spring Shooting' is probably intended to mean that the tragedy is happening in Spring, but to me, it sounds like an expected seasonal event. Don't be surprised if you see this same old story happen yet again: summer shooting, fall shooting and winter shooting! It is like a popular movie, with continued sequels.

Unfortunately, such mass murders are not movies. Real people actually died. In terms of gun possession, U.S.A. is number one in the whole world. One recent report shows that there are 97 guns for every 100 U.S.residents. Whao, that means there are more than 300 million guns in America !

"Guns don't kill people.Only people kill people", so they say. I heard that in Texas, a man would propose to marry a woman by giving her not only a ring, but also a gun. Dear friends in Texas, is this true or not ? Don't know what to say really, in spite of the fact that mass shooting causing multiple deaths is a very serious problem.Why ? Because bearing arms is a constitutional right of the Americans.

Guns are very much part of the American culture. It is not easy to change a culture, unless both government and people come to an agreement. Politics and economics only make the gun issue even more difficult and complicated. It is a mission impossible, or is it ?, to tell the Americans to stop playing with guns, the Russians to stop drinking volka, or the Canadians to stop playing hockey ?!

Hockey and Canada

Both Canada's teams, men and women, won hockey GOLD in the Olympic Games. No doubt hockey is the game of Canada !!!

O Canada

It is not the first time that Canadians take issue about their national anthem.I remember that Canada's men and women hockey teams both won gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Sidney Crosby's overtime winning score turned the whole country of Canada into a frenzy. It created some wonderful nationalistic feelings spontaneously. Everyone, even non-Canadians, got caught in the Canadian pride and excitement.Many joined in singing O Canada.
............................................................................................      
Recently, O Canada became Ouch Canada again. The same old question resurfaced: should O Canada be changed to be gender-neutral ? A few prominent Canadian women, including Kim Campbell and Margaret Atwood said yes.
............................................................................................
There are 3 ouches in O Canada. The first ouch is that some women are upset about the line 'in all thy sons command'. This is sexist, they complain. Some suggest that it should revert to the old version of 'thou dost in us command'. Others suggest the change to 'in all of us command'. Yet some women say it is just fine to keep 'in all thy sons command' with no change.This is my opinion: 'thou dost in us command' is old English. It just doesn't sound right for our time.The words do not sound good for singing either. 'In all of us command' is O.K., but for singing, it doesn't sound as good as 'in all thy sons command'. My suggestion is this: change the words to 'in you and I command'.
.............................................................................................
The second ouch is 'our home and native land'. What does the word 'native' mean? Often when we see the word 'native', we think of the native people of Canada. The native people are the aboriginal or indigenous people. But then the people who were born in Canada are also natives of the land. Furthermore, this land or country called Canada belongs to all Canadians, not just the natives or native-born.Canada also belongs to the many immigrants from different backgrounds who chose to become Canadians.So what are we going to do with 'our home and native land'? I have a suggestion: just change it to 'our home Canadian land'. The meaning is appropriate, and it sounds good for singing.     
...........................................................................................
The third ouch is 'God keep our land, Glorious and Free'. Canada is a free country. People belong to different religions and faith groups. The problem is that people believe in different gods, so which god or gods keep our land? Besides, there are agnostics and atheists, too. Canada belongs to all Canadians, whether you believe in a god or not. I suggest to simply drop this line of 'God keep our land' and replace it with 'O Canada'. 'O Canada, Glorious and Free' sounds very good, do you agree ?
...........................................................................................
Maybe the Government of Canada can hold a contest across the country, to come up with the best new version of O Canada, otherwise we have to keep living with the 3 existing ouches !






  

Hockey Riot

So bad so sad, not because the Canucks of Vancouver has lost the Stanley Cup to the Bruins of Boston, but rather the hockey riot has tarnished the beautiful image of Vancouver. Why such madness ? It is the loss of Stanley Cup, not Stanley Park !