Friday, December 06, 2002

In Canada, You Know We Are at War I just got back from a short business trip to Canada, and as I came back, I knew we were in a war.   I have worked in Canada for years, and love working with Canadians.  However, on this trip, person after person I spoke to was extremely worried about the U.S.  Almost uniformly, they felt our country was falling into a dictatorial and dangerous situation, and they wondered how ordinary Americans felt about it.   Several people asked me if people at home in the U.S. were okay—or were they totally worried and frightened.   With one woman, I got into a discussion of  Bowling for Columbine.  She had just seen the movie, and loved it.  “Is it able to be shown in the U.S.” she asked—explaining that perhaps Americans would not allow such a critical film to be publicly shown at this time.   Another man asked me about Iraq, wondering how soon we were going to war, and how could our country be in the grip of such fear and hatred that we would act irrationally.  He said that perhaps Americans were really scared out of their wits—and they would lash out at anybody.   There was a lot of comment about the uproar after an assistant to their Prime Minster called Bush a moron. Several people went out of their way to explain to me that in Canada they called their politicians names all the time—and wondered why the Americans were so upset.    Finally, on my way back to the airport, my cab driver said he was afraid to go through the U.S., and that his government had advised him not to travel to the United States.  He was a Canadian citizen, living in Canada since 1972, but he was born in Pakistan.  He hated terrorists and he hated Saudi Arabia, but he was a Muslim, and more than anything, he wanted just to run his business which consisted of 12 cabs and limos, and take care of his family.  He had not been to Pakistan for 30 years, and had planned a trip this fall to visit his cousin.  When the government warned him not to go to the U.S., he cancelled his plans, because he could find no inexpensive flight that did not go through the U.S.   Then he said his cousin told him it was dangerous to come to Pakistan now anyway, because he would be arrested an charged as being part of Al Qaeda.  His cousin said it was now routine in Pakistan to charge foreigners as terrorists, and then force them to pay bribes to be released.   He said it was just too dangerous, and he hoped to go when the situation was calmer.   The culmination of all these conversations made me feel I was living in world war III.  Travel is no longer safe.  Canadians think America is collapsing into an intolerant, paranoid, and insecure society where normal politics and criticism have been outlawed, and are almost universally against American policies.  After two years of George Bush, we truly have become targets and objects of scorn in the eyes of much of the world.     5:32:22 PM   comment []

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