Utopia exists in Canada, but it is just a cafe
I came to Canada in search of Utopia. However, a while after I arrived in Toronto, I realized that there was no Utopia in Canada when I found that Canadian people blame the U.S. while remaining silent about other countries, no matter how terrible and inhuman the practices that are part of their cultures. Anti-American comments sound very offensive to me, yet many Canadians pride themselves on having greater cultural sensitivity than Americans.
Japan is often considered a racist country because it adopts a very strict immigration policy. However, schools in Japan do not teach hatred toward any other country or culture, unlike Canadian schools, where I often heard comments blaming the U.S. Japanese schools also teach more historical facts than Canadian and U.S. schools do, since hate speech laws in Canada and the U.S. seem to scare teachers away from telling the uglier history of other countries and cultures.
Worse, the city has a large Muslim population, and this is disappointing to me, because many of the Muslims I have met, or seen represented in media, hold views that conflict with Western individual freedom. This matters to me because individual freedom was part of what drew me to Canada in the first place. I also find myself encountering Muslims often, since I am not a Westerner, and Muslims I meet tend to identify me as a non-Westerner and assume we share certain values. I do have one close male friend who is Muslim, and from him I learned that good character can be found in anyone, even within a culture whose values — such as strict gender roles, conservatism, or rigid rule-following — I personally find unpleasant.
Before coming to Canada, I had traveled to more than 20 countries and lived in the U.S. for one year. I chose Canada because I thought it would be a better place than those countries. However, after 7 years in Canada, it became clear to me that Utopia does not exist anywhere in the world — which makes sense, since the word originally means “no place.” That said, I did find another “Utopia” in Toronto: a café in Little Italy, downtown. It’s just a café, not a real Utopia, but I’m happy to have it close by. I no longer feel the need to search for Utopia. Perhaps Utopia isn’t something to be found, but something to be created. This café is a good place to think about how to build my own Utopia — over a great cappuccino.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
A Japanese View 