Re: canadian roots

From: Diane Hodges (dhodges@ceo.cudenver.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 05 2001 - 08:06:28 PDT


re my que[e]ry
>
>are you really glad? because we really are, far and away, more
>enlightened, socialist democracy and all.
>:)

mike writes
>
>#1) Sure i am really glad! This medium makes irony difficult to deal with
>but none there at all.

i was really only teasing there eh? Canadians, in my experience, share a
certain uneasiness with American masses because of the, er, ignorance on
th'other side of the border about
us Canucks and all. When me mum was in Australia, she found the Aussies
saying to her, "Did you say you from America?" and she would say,
"Canada," and the common response, "Oh! I'm _sorry_!" meaning, sorry for
mis-taking her for an American, as if this were an insult. Strange.
In the recent issue of "GEIST" [Canadian Culture magazine] there's a
brilliant essay on the history of the name, "America," and how the United
States managed to claim it as their identity, as opposed to a reference to
the northern part of the American continent, i.e., Latin American, Central
America, North America, and so on. Kinda interesting.
>
>
>the main point i was trying to make in my remarks was that the views
>expressed by Nate as "what everyone does" are most certainly NOT
>what everyone does in my part of the world. I actually doubt that they
>are the norm in Canada, but would be happy to be wrong.

the norm in Canada is often Conservative Caution Please: This is a
Bureaucracy. Socialism has its benefits, but the drawback is the excess
bureaucracy, shades of Kafka, really. The largest piece of the provincial
budgets is "Administration," - gotta pay al them civil servants, keep 'em
supplied with paper clips and pens and all.
Universities are pretty diverse, though. that's a good thing. :)
>
>
>A major purpose of XMCA is to provide a medium in which people who want to
>both "keep culture in mind" and be acceptable as social scientists to be
>able to do so.
>It is not an easy task. It requires research practices which take time,
>as you
>point, out (in my experience, a LOT of time), mix pre-20th century
>modernist categories of scholarship, and combine methods in a systematic
>method-ology.

yes - it's unfortunate that social science can't find a way to agree that
19th century standards don't really help much in the 21st century.
>
>
>The pretty colors of the loonies does not help in the humane efforts
>of the Canadian citizenship, worse the luck.
>
well the loonies don't have colours, (she said, adding the ubiquitous "U"
to her spelling of "colour") - it's the paper currency that is
rainbow-esque. there are plans for a five-dollar coin but so far no
nickname for it. Human citizens ought not be confused with Fascist
Chretien, of course. (Mr. Chretien is the prime minister, a Cdn version of
the "President," - we also have a queen, sort of, in keeping our romantic
ties with the UK. the National mandate for the 21st century is PEACE
making (ho ho) and SERVICE/TECHNOLOGY. so far we're doing okay on the
latter. the former needs work.

>
>What do you think of Sylvia Scribner's treatment of Vygotsky and
>history?
>mike

you know, this would be a great discussion. let me get back to you on
this.
cheers eh?
diane
>

"If you'll excuse me now, I'd like to be alone with my sandwich."
Homer



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