Gender, Religion, and J-Roc
October 10, 2009 § Leave a comment
Christianity has a long history of being a female-gendered religion. I would suggest this derives from the early Christian Church, which saw men and women as equals. It was only the rise of the Vatican in Rome that saw the gradual dissolution of women’s roles in the church.
In the late 19th century, throughout the British Empire, including Canada, there was a massive reinvigoration of mainline Protestant churches. In part, this was driven by the concept of “muscular Christianity”, a doctrine that was used to justify and extend the British imperial project. According to this doctrine, the (white) British Christian man was to give his body and soul over to Jesus. His body was to be his temple. The muscular Christian, then, could be found all over the British Empire, in Africa, in India, extending British dominion over a usually recalcitrant populace. He could also be found in the inner-city of London and Manchester, as well as Montréal and Toronto. The Americans got into the act, too. Indeed, the rise of organised sport, largely centred around Thomas Arnold’s Rugby School and the ubiquitous sport, derived from muscular Christianity, as did the Boy Scouts movement of Lord Baden-Powell in the late 19th century.
But this masculinised Christianity arose in response to the feminisation of these mainline Protestant churches. Women were always the more devout, the ones who actually went to mass, and they began to create space for themselves within the parish, within the church itself. Women’s auxiliaries, in particular, but also other organisations. The Catholic Church, at least in Québec got involved, too, creating groups that were female-centric. The fact that these churches would become feminised is not all that surprising, in many ways. Women were left without recreative spaces through the rise of industrialisation and the middle classes in the 19th century. The advent of domestic servants for large swaths of the population meant that these women had less to do.
Just as their husbands’ masculinity had to change and take into account their new sedentary employment as managers, these bourgeois women’s femininity also shifted. They were no longer so much caregivers and housekeepers, they had free time. But they lived in a world where their public excursions and causes were always going to be limited due to the dominant patriarchal ideals of the day. There were concerns about their safety and security, about the “delicate nature of the fairer sex.” Thus, the church became the ideal location for women. What safer place could there be than God’s house? And so the parish (or whatever you want to call it in whatever Christian church you want to talk about) became this feminised space, just for women.
And men were turned off by the church, hence the response of muscular Christianity.
Recently, I exchanged emails with my CTlab colleague, Marisa Urgo, about American jihadists, and she noted something kind of interesting. She suggested that it makes sense that bored (white) suburban youth in the US would be intrigued by Islam, as it is a very masculine religion, when compared to Christianity. While I am not so interested in the consequences of this, it’s not my area of expertise, I do find the idea of gender and religion really interesting. The fact that a particular disaffected segment of white, suburban youth would be attracted to the masculinist vision of radical Islam is fascinating for all sorts of reasons.
I think there’s also something to be said for the exotic here, much like white suburban boys in the late 80s/early 90s got so fascinated by gangsta rap coming out of Los Angeles and New York City. This was when I was a teenager, and whilst I love hip hop, I never quite understood these guys who became so obsessed with not just the music, but the alleged lifestyle of gangsta rappers, to the point where they began to not only dress like Easy-E and Ice Cube, but they began to commit petty crime and to act like idiots, so that they could be gangsta. You know the type, like J-Roc from Trailer Park Boys
Canada and Its Inferiority Complex
October 6, 2009 § 8 Comments
Last week, I published a review of Canadian journalist John Lorinc’s new book, Cities: A Groundwork Guide, over at the Complex Terrain Laboratory. As much as I liked and enjoyed this book, I found myself wondering, though, as I read this book, was what is with Canadians’, or maybe just Torontonians’, obsession with Toronto?
Toronto is mentioned more than any other city in the world in Lorinc’s book. More than London, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo; more than Nairobi, and New York. Toronto is mentioned more than twice as often as Canada’s other 2 major cities: Montréal and Vancouver. Moreover, Montréal is usually, though not exclusively, mentioned in a negative light. Not Toronto.
We are a nation with an inferiority complex, that I can accept. Toronto’s wiki page, though, is kind of sad, as it has to point out that: “As Canada’s economic capital, Toronto is considered a global city and is one of the top financial centres in the world.” It is indeed a top financial centre in the world, somewhere around 20th. Great. Who cares, really.
Why can’t we just stand on our own merits and not have to defensively point out that we can play with the big boys? I liked Canada more when we were an unassuming nation, proud to be what we are, but not a neighbourhood bully or the whiny little brother of the USA. This inferiority complex is getting out of hand.
And whilst Lorinc, on the one hand, is showcasing Toronto for the domestic audience, it is kind of sad that it has to come at the expense of Montréal and Vancouver, and that Toronto is mentioned more often than any other city in the entire world. Years ago, the Vancouver band, Spirit of the West, wrote a song about this, called “Far Too Canadian;” times have changed, though, we are no longer content to be the unassuming, quiet Canadians. Now we’re becoming a bunch of loudmouths. I like the old way better.
the house of the irish
October 5, 2009 § Leave a comment
i submitted a book proposal to mcgill-queens university press the other week. i mailed it out monday, i got an email response on thursday. i was astounded canada post could get something somewhere that fast, even if the proposal travelled no more than 3.5km from pointe-saint-charles to mcgill. anyway, mqup liked what they read. they are interested in publishing the book, once it becomes a book.
so now, i am beginning to ponder how to turn “the house of the irish”, the dissertation, into the house of the irish, the book. i am cutting out the first substantive chapter, on the shamrock lacrosse club. that will become an article or two. and i am extending a chapter on nations and nationalism in griffintown, c. 1900-17 to at least 1922, with the establishment of the irish free state. part of my argument is that once ireland gained something approximating independence, even if the north was left out (or, more properly stated, opted out), the irish of the diaspora more or less lost interest in ireland, at least that was, i think, the situation in montréal. ireland was already an imagined nation by the early 20th century on account of there being hardly any irish-born irish in montréal by this time, immigration having dried up shortly after the famine. but after the free state was established, the irish here turned even more inwards. so that’s the first major revision or expansion.
the other is to correct the methodological issues in the last two chapters of the dissertation, which is too much reliance on the same set of sources. to correct this, i am going to engage in some oral history. but i am back to the same problem i had with the dissertation in a sense here. i am not interested in talking to the professional griffintowners, the don pidgeons and denis delaneys of the world. their thoughts and opinions on the griff are very well known, they are part of the commemorative process amongst the griffintown diaspora. i want to talk to people who didn’t necessarily think that they grew up in shangri-la. the ones who have an alternative view of the griff, or at least a more critical one. one former griffintowner in burman’s film said something like it was a shame to see the griff go, as they had it all. oh really? despite the poverty, unemployment, insecurity of tenure, etc.? of course, this is partly nostalgia, partly a child’s view of life in the 1940s. but i want to talk to people who have a more critical memory.
and that’s the hard part. where do i find these people? they’re not the ones at all the various griff gatherings. i have a few ideas, one of which is to make use of the parish of saint-gabriel, the historically irish church in the pointe (in fact, almost next door to us here). i recognise old griffintowners standing outside of saint-gabriel’s every sunday morning, so i’m hoping i can start there, talk to a few of them, get references to their friends, and so on.
either way, i am excited about this, i’m excited to turn this story of griffintown into a book. i think this is a story that has wider implications, not just for montréal, but for the irish diaspora, and even as an example of the acculturation of an ethnic group in a major metropolitan centre in north america.
as my favourite soccer blogger used to say at the end of each post: onwards!
we’re #4!!!
October 5, 2009 § Leave a comment
the un released its human development index rankings today. canada ranks as the 4th best place in the world to live. not so bad, i suppose, to be ranked #4. it ranks after norway, australia, and iceland. but i find this kind of disturbing, really. norway, fine. i’ve got nothing against norway, nor really australia, either. but iceland? iceland is practically bankrupt, one of the hardest hit nations in the world during the current economic meltdown that we may or may not be recovering from. how that can be translated into a #3 rating is beyond me. but i guess the economy is only part of the hdi, but i do wonder what will happen to iceland next year. and to be fair, iceland did fall from 1st to 3rd this year.
meanwhile, canada. canada spent a long time atop the annual hdi. in 1992, and from 1994 right through to 2000, this was the best place in the world to live, at least as measured by the compilation of statistics by the un. but, hey, that’s not a bad thing. canada was the first dynasty of the hdi, which the un only began publishing in 1990. norway is the current dynasty, having been first from 2001-2006 and now this year, its reign only punctuated by iceland’s two chart toppers in 2007 and 2008.
and whilst canada is by no means a poor place to live, its measurement in the hdi has consistently ranked it in the top 10, most often in the top 5. but this slippage does get me worried in some ways. canada tends to fall down these rankings due to its poor record vis-à-vis the aboriginal population and the vast amount of poverty on reserves around the country, as well as the incredibly difficult circumstances aboriginals in urban areas tend to face. and yet, and yet…every government in the past decade has sworn to do better by the aboriginal population. and every government does nothing. last week, the globe & mail visited what it called “ground zero” of the h1n1 outbreak in canada, an indian reserve at wasagamack, manitoba. wasagamack is an incredibly isolated community, 600 km north of winnipeg, a trip made by air and water taxi.
wasagamack made headlines last month because health canada sent out 200 body bags instead of supplies to fight a possible outbreak of h1n1. this was a great insult, because death is taboo in aboriginal culture, death is not prepared for, death is dealt with when it arrives, but not beforehand.
at any rate, as the newspaper article shows, this nation lags on dealing with the very real threat against the human rights of canadian aboriginals. i have been on reserves in various parts of this country, and in some cases, conditions are appalling. and spare me the rightwing argument they only have themselves to blame. that is utter bullshit. reserves were created on marginal land the country over. traditional ways of life were discouraged by the government, languages were lost, and so on. when “modern” housing was promised, the results were disappointing. places like wasagamck have homes inundated with mould, improper sanitation, like no running water, broken windows, and sagging foundations.
this is a national embarrassment. i recall, back when i worked on aboriginal claims, canada 2000. i lived in ottawa, and i was working on a claim that involved the forced removal of several groups of inuit in northern manitoba and what is now nunavut to new locations. the government, in some cases, claimed it was due to the need for food. the caribou, which the southern inuit relied upon for food, had changed their migration patterns and were experiencing a dip in their population. but rather than let the inuit track their new routes south and west of their location, they were moved to churchill, manitoba, where they were put on the dole and disease stalked them. further north, the inuit were moved around the arctic like pawns on a chessboard for the government, as a means of shoring up canadian sovereignty in the arctic during the cold war (aboriginals and the arctic are two issues in canadian politics where politicians talk the talk but continually fail to walk the walk). and so here i was in ottawa in 2000, 40 years after these events up north. and all i could feel was revulsion at my country, that this was allowed to happen.
one civil servant at northern affairs canada argued, quite forcefully, that the government had done the right thing, that it knew better than the inuit as to how to survive. i was dumbfounded, i was astounded that this attitude still existed in the government.
and meanwhile, each successive government talks about improving the quality of life of aboriginals on and off reserves. and each government fails. even the current conservative government, with a minister of health, leona aglukkaq, who is an inuit from nunavut, has continued to fail. indeed, it was aglukkaq’s government which sent out the body bags to wasagamack.
The Melting Pot of Diasporas
March 26, 2009 § 2 Comments
So, with PhD in hand, I have begun to think about new research projects. One in particular that I am interested in is the plight of diasporas in large, multi-ethnic urban centres in North America. This one came to me in the Mile End of Montréal, today the home of hipsters, artists, and musicians. Indeed, damn near every Montréal band of recent vintage hails from the Mile End: The Arcade Fire, Stars, Patrick Watson, and so on and so forth. Anyway, we were in St. Viateur Bagels, buying bagels, then we planned to head over to Open Da’ Night, the legendary local Italian café, for the best caffé latté in North America. As we made our way along the street, we passed a Greek restaurant, whilst all around the hipsters and pretentiarati, Hasidic Jews made their way to and from synagogue and business. Me, I’m an Irish-Canadian. And, yeah, so, big deal. That’s urban life. But it’s more than that, it’s urban space, it’s identity, and it’s place. How do diasporas mix in the city in North America? How do Hasidic Jews in Montréal maintain their distinct, separate identity in the midst of this urban chaos? What has become of the old Portuguese, Greek, and Italian immigrants of the Mile End? What does it mean to speak the English language in Montréal? Charles Boberg, a linguist at McGill, has postulated that we speak a distinct idiom of English here, influenced as it is by the obvious source: French, but also by words and diction from the diasporic peoples of the city, especially Greeks and Italians. Me, I think about accents in the city, about the different French accents (they vary according to class, location in the city, location in Québec), how the Irish of Verdun speak so differently from the Anglos of Westmount, and the variations of Italian-, Greek-, Portuguese- Montrealers. And what about the cultures? Montréal is famous for, amongst other things, smoked meat, bagels, and poutine. The first two are Jewish delicacies, the last, québécois.
What about music? First there’s the case of the legendary québécois chanteuse, La Bolduc. La Bolduc was born Mary Travers in the Gaspésie in 1894, the daughter of an Irishman and québécois mother. Her music was largely comprised of traditional Irish jigs and reels, over which she sang in québécois French. Today, one of the most popular québécois bands is Les Cowboys Fringants, who play an acoustic, traditional-based rock, and by traditional, I mean québécois. And yet, many of the jigs and reels of the Fringnants’ music are Irish-based.
Indeed, so Irish are Les Cowboys that every time I listen to them, I sometimes forget that they’re québécois, they sound like an acoustic version of the Irish-American “punk” band, Flogging Molly. “Punk” is in quotations because Flogging Molly are more Irish than punk, their punk energy comes from the fast-paced nature of their Irish ditties. Indeed, they’re not unlike Les Cowboys in that sense. At any rate, Flogging Molly originated in Los Angeles, a city not particularly well-known for its Irish diaspora, but very well known for its punk rock.
All of this is still in its infancy, but it is something that I think about as I make my way to and from work, as I interact with my students, and listen to the conversations of the city. As I develop these ideas, watch this space, and the Complex Terrain Laboratory.
News
March 24, 2009 § 2 Comments
After what has seemed like an eternity, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation, entitled, “‘The House of the Irish’: Irishness, History, and Memory in Griffintown, Montréal, 1868-2009,” on Friday, 13 March. So now I am Dr. John Matthew Barlow.
This also explains my absence from this blog for the past month, as I prepared for and recovered from said defence. I will be active again in the coming days.
Nationalism, Globalism & The Economy
February 27, 2009 § Leave a comment
A few weeks ago, French President Nicholas Sarkozy dismissed nationalism in Québec as tribalism, amongst other things, and suggesting that the world has moved on. This set off a frenzy amongst nationalists here, not surprisingly, who have been keenly and actively using the economic downturn to argue that Québec would be better off as an independent country.
Meanwhile, in the United States, President Barack Obama’s first stimulus package contained a “Buy American” clause for major items and industries, like steel. This set the United States’ trading partners, including the EU and Canada into a rage and was Obama’s first mis-step on the international stage, which he and his administration have spent a lot of time backing away from since.
Québec and the United States demonstrate, in many ways, the old way of doing things. During an economic crisis, to withdraw, to become protectionist, and tribal. Meanwhile, in the European Union, at least at a political level, the impetus has been quite the opposite: Europe has branded together to attack the economic downturn, to try to find solutions. Sarko’s rejection of québécois nationalism is something that plays out in his politics, and those of the rest of the Europe.
And whilst the actions of European politicians may be at odds with some aspects of the European population, what I find more interesting are these two competing notions of how to deal with the economy today. During the Depression of the 1930s, nations became protectionist and introverted, led by the United States, the country that, in many ways, had the most to lose with the Stock Market Crash in 1929. The Depression, I should also point out, lasted for most of the 1930s. So maybe protectionism is not the correct model for surviving this recession? Whatever we think of globalism, good or bad or ambivalent, it might be time to recognise its reality, that we do live in a globalised economy, with an emergent global culture, and respond to the recession in that spirit. The world’s response to the “Buy American” clause of the US stimulus package was telling. Canada and the EU told Obama and his administration that protectionism was not acceptable in this day and age (nor is it entirely legal according to the US’ trade pacts with Canada and the EU), and that rather than turn inwards, the world’s governments need to work together in order to solve the problems with the economy.
Of course, that then leads to the question of whether deep structural reforms are necessary, as the European Union seems to suggesting insofar as the banking and securities industries are concerned, or not, as Canada and the United States are suggesting. Will this bring conflict and argument about a New World Economic Order?
The Wild, Wild West
February 24, 2009 § Leave a comment
On 14 October 2007, Robert Dziekanski was trying to immigrate to Canada. His mother already lived in the interior of British Columbia, so Dziekanski flew from Gliwice, Poland, to Vancouver. But things went horribly awry at the Vancouver International Airport. After a long, drawn out immigration process at Customs at the airport, Dziekanski was frustrated. For one, he didn’t speak English, so he needed help with the immigration process. Meanwhile, his mother, Zofia Cisowski was waiting for him in the airport at arrivals. But she could get no information about her son’s arrival, and at one point was even told by Canadian customs officials that he was not in the airport at all. Around 10pm on the night of 13 October, she gave up and went home to Kamloops, several hours away from Vancouver. She though Dziekanski had missed his flight.
Meanwhile, Dziekanski was increasingly agitated, and violent. He threw a computer and a table across the customs area. Staff and other passengers could not calm him down. No one could speak Polish. But, at the same time, no one thought to call airport maintenance worker Karol Vrba, who could. Indeed, Vrba even offered his services, but was told to go back to work. Meanwhile, the RCMP were called to deal with Dziekanski. Officers were told that he was “extremely drunk.” Toxicology reports show he hadn’t been drinking.
As anyone who has followed this story, Dziekanski was killed that night by the RCMP, tasered to death.
What scares me is that the testimony of one of the officers in front of the inquiry into Dziekanski’s death, we have been told that the four officers who responded all came individually in their own cars, and did not discuss a game plan as to how to deal with the situation, neither over their radios nor in person upon arrival. Indeed, Cst. Gerry Rundel reports that he felt threatened, “to a certain degree” because Dziekanski was acting in a “to hell with you guys” manner towards the police. No kidding. 10 hoursof being caught in a Kafkaesque purgatory at the Vancouver International Airport, refused access to his mother, and refused any comprehensive translation services, who wouldn’t be upset?
This is from Cst. Rundel’s testimony at the Braidwood Inquiry, as summarised by The Globe and Mail yesterday:
“One bystander pointed Mr. Dziekanski out to the constable, and another told him that the man did not speak English.
Constable Rundel said he did not discuss these insights with the other officers.
He described Mr. Dziekanski as unkempt, sweaty, “perhaps disoriented,” and in a state consistent with intoxicated males he had seen in his policing experience.
“I recall Constable Bentley asked Mr. Dziekanski a question to the effect of ‘Hi. How are you doing?'”
Mr. Dziekanski said some words “in a language I did not understand,” and gestured to his luggage, prompting Cpl. Robinson to say “No” sharply and gesture to Mr. Dziekanski to stay away from the items, Constable Rundel said.
The officer said he assumed Mr. Dziekanski’s response suggested he understood basic gestures, adding he did not think Mr. Dziekanski’s lack of English was a barrier to communication.
Mr. Dziekanski stood up and moved away, but he had a “to hell with you guys manner,” Constable Rundel said.
He said Mr. Dziekanski flipped his hands up and moved away from the officers in what was deemed to be “non-compliant” way.
“I recall his combative behaviour. I recall fearing for my safety to a certain degree.”
He said this was a situation in which his training had taught him a taser could be used.”
It was not Cst. Rundel’s call to use the taster, he was not the ranking officer there. But Dziekanski was tasered a total of five times. The most frightening thing here for me is that the RCMP seems to think that this is acceptable. That using the taser gun is a viable means of law enforcement. Ignoring study after study after study that suggests that the taser is not entirely safe, the RCMP (and other police forces across Canada, do a google search) have continued to use tasers, resulting in 16 deaths in Canada between 2003 and 2007. In many of these cases, such as Dziekanski’s, I find it hard to believe that police officers, who are supposed to be trained in such things, could not convince the targetted person to calm down. In Dziekanski’s case, there was one of him and four police. Surely four trained police officers could subdue one disoriented, upset Polish construction worker without tasering and killing him.
Finally, in February 2009, some 16 months after Dziekanski’s death, the RCMP has revamped its rules of engagement for the taser gun. While this is a positive development, I am left wondering what in the hell took them so long?
Changes afoot at the CTlab
February 22, 2009 § Leave a comment
So, over at the CTlab, Mike and I have been hard at work figuring out our new site architecture. Initially, working with our web designer, Stu, we found a template to use. However, realising that the CTlab is largely a text-driven site, we realised that this option, which was geared towards visuals and images, we shifted gears. So, we have developed a new template and Stu is now working to customise it for us, so hopefully we will be able to launch it, as well as some re-designed graphics, in the coming weeks.
Oh, Canada. What are you doing?
February 19, 2009 § Leave a comment
This morning, Le Devoir informed me that Canada is the only western nation not re-patriating its citizens who have been rotting in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay. In fact, Canada is the only western nation that still has a citizen in Gitmo. There is only one Canadian there, the rather notorious Omar Khadr. Now whatever you may think about young Mr. Khadr is irrelevant. What is relevant is that he is a Canadian citizen, full stop. He was born in Toronto. He is Canadian. And yet, our government here in the Great White North has done exactly nothing to aid young Mr. Khadr, who was all of 15 years of old when he was captured. That would qualify him as a child soldier, I might add, under international law.
All other western nations (France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Australia, and Belgium) have repatriated their citizens from Gitmo. Not Canada. No sir. Not under the Liberal government in power until January 2006. And certainly not under the Conservative government since then. This is, plain and simple, wrong. Khadr should face justice for his actions in Afghanistan, true. But he should not be facing a kangaroo court, which is what the military court charged with trying him in Gitmo seems to have been. The rules of trial kept changing. And when US President Obama signed the decree to close Gitmo, according to Khadr’s military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, the military commissions in Cuba were effectively ended. Thus, there is no court anymore to try Khadr. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that the country cannot interfere in the American judicial process. If that was truly the case, I have yet to see Harper’s explanation as to how those French, British, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Belgian, and Australian prisoners found their way home.
Khadr has two Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney and Nate Whitling, who visited him in May 2007. They accuse Canada of abandoning Khadr and the Americans of mistreating him. Edney argues: “You have a gutless country called Canada where the government has not been able to extract even the most meagre of concessions from the U.S. My client is a boy who was shot twice and is blind in one eye, but they won’t even let an independent medical person in to visit him. Out of all the cases I have done, Khadr is the one that gives me nightmares. He has been completely abandoned — and we in Canada have done this.”
I’m afraid that about sums it up. Whatever one things of Khadr, and he is a polarising figure, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Canada is not standing up for one of its citizens abroad. And that is wrong. Plainly and completely wrong.
Matthew Barlow 