One of the things that got me thinking about this subject was an episode of Ideas I listened to early last week. Although I claimed to be up on current events in my first posting, I have to admit that the episode was from 2010. Anyway, the episode was from a series about being Canadian and this specific episode was about immigration. What caught my attention was the following excerpt from Discover Canada: The rights and responsibilities of citizenship, an immigration handbook published by the federal government: (Is this the appropriate use of a colon? Can someone tell me?)
In Canada, men and women are equal under the law. Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, “honour killings,” female genital mutilation, forced marriage or other gender-based violence. Those guilty of these crimes are severely punished under Canada’s criminal laws.
This got me thinking that in fact there IS a place for commenting on cultural practices and apparently the place is a Canadian immigration handbook. For real though, as much as I really struggle with the idea of judging cultural practices, it did warm my heart that my government knows where they draw the line. And I love this line. I feel good about being on the Canadian side of this line. I only hope my government doesn't attempt to redraw this line (and put abortion on the other side), but more on that later. Maybe. The point is that in this moment I am glad there are people who do see the importance of not accepting all human behaviour, and instead stating quite clearly that certain behaviours or practices are completely unacceptable. Two points human rights! (Human rights had to get two points or it would have been a tie with open-mindedness and I feel like that would have been a really anticlimactic way to end for first blog series.)
Now if we could only get God outta the national anthem. Just kidding. Kinda.
I just don't feel comfortable with the word, barbaric, being used. It is heavily loaded in this context....not sure if I can specify identify why I am uncomfortable with it...but I am. Maybe it's because I am very anti-confrontational and that term would piss a lot of people off.
ReplyDeleteI totally know what you're saying. There is still something about this conversation that makes me very uncomfortable. I think that 'barbaric' is a VERY heavily loaded term, and perhaps it is unnecessary? At the same time, are there certain things you think ARE barbaric and therefore circumstances in which you would be comfortable using the word? Just one more reason why calling this post 'Drawing the Line' is totally genius! Where is the line to barbarism?
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