happy Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, everyone! the Saint-Jean is the Quebec national holiday so i'm helping celebrate by only listening to Quebec artists all day today. but. there is one catch. this holiday still leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it's been hijacked by Quebec separatists and people still see it as a francophone holiday. but. it's about quebecers, isn't it? (btw, like i always mention: i'm a white Quebec francophone. and still proud of it. so it's not a rant against quebec francophones; it's a rant against the ones who still (and prouldy, i might add; but unconsciouly so) hold a fascist agenda. it's unbelievable to me. this province needs to get its head out of its ass and get real. we're still living in the 70s. this province, as with all of Canada, has a multitude of beautiful cultures to offer. french included. please stop with the xenophobia. so, as i was saying. i'm consciously expanding what is considered quebecois on this day. you can also play along and put any of the (non-francophone) following artists on - off the top of my head: Melissa Auf Der Maur, Rufus Wainwright, Kid Koala, Amon Tobin, Bran Van 3000, and The Stills. i'm fuckin' sick of francophones in denial or in fear (stop with the fuckin' paranoia, will ya? we're not under siege at all. breathe a little) about what Quebec is. be open about it. we're not losing our culture at all. learn to accept others' cultures and this will be a much, much better place to live, you'll see. rant over. this sickens me, though. i love my country and my province. today is about loving my province; not about hating and bashing non-francophones. the world has moved on and what is left of the proud protectionism of the 60s and 70s is hate and xenophobia. well, our culture has expanded. we haven't lost our language (a lot of them still hold the belief that language is our culture (and they delude themselves by going to see Armageddon dubbed in quebecois; i've said before and i'll it (again and again): it doesn't preserve your quebec culture, you prick. the film still has very american values). well, it is part of it, and i don't wanna lose it, but it's not the biggest one. culture is a lot more things than language: it's mainly a set of attitudes and behaviors among people. not everyone in this province who speaks french has the same culture as i have. we express ourselves in french. but that's pretty much it. open up your minds. we need to let the other cultures that live here be part of our own. we're not gonna lose our identity. hell, as much as we've tried, they haven't lost theirs. we need to accept them into our own -- quebecers. i'm sad to say that we still don't). we seriously need to wake up and realize this. so have a happy, safe, and fun Saint-Jean today. i'm always torn when we get to this day. torn between deep disgust for the very real highjacking of the fête by separatists and genuine love for this part of my culture. as far as i know this fête is still about quebecers, not about separatists, so i'll be celebrating my love for this province in my own personal, dogged way :) it's the only way i can to keep my sanity :)
np: dumas, le cours des jours
Posted by Anonymous | 8:26 AM
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