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Question 11: Values and CultureShould Canada seek out opportunities for fostering global intercultural dialogue
and interfaith understanding? |
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| Contributor: | 1794 |
| Date: |
2003-04-30 16:22:09 |
| Answer: |
Interfaith understanding ?!?
First, we have to have the courage to break out of our deliberately-chosen naivete. This will take more than we now have - without courage, all the learning goes into the gutter, as exemplified by the process and consequences of Durban. Canada sold out at Durban. I had not taken enough time to follow Canadian votes and activities until then, but events at Durban shook me to my core. I no longer have confidence in the UN, nor Amnesty International, both of which I had supported for decades. Human nature’s preference for the easy way out does not assure confidence in the exertions required for defending values. If we do not confirm and protect out stated values, what does the future hold? 9/11 was an attack on western society: Arab Amans themselves agreed about this, and the Aman in Ottawa recently reiterated this hostile position. There is a need for respectful tolerance, from westerner society to stop interfering with the eastern way of life. How can we pretend to respect a culture when we constantly visit with the intent to “educate” (read: change) them ? We need to reconsider very carefully our involvement in hostile cultures. I do not intend to leave a legacy of oppression or war for my children and their children, and it doesn’t really matter that we are not all Jewish, nor adherents to any organized religion.
How have Canadian values been expressed in the recent past ? If we are even to think of future “seeking out” then first we better go back and redress our own glaring actions and decisions.
And wait for invitations before visiting other countries bringing western gifts with strings attached to values. And yet, I do not know how we can share our wealth without some stipulations regarding fair distribution. Certainly we need to rethink this.
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