Dear Friends
I snip, then comment below.
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>From: Melanie Milanich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: Germaine Greer on N.Y. and Ottawa
>Date: Wed, Sep 29, 1999, 2:02 pm
>
>Melanie Milanich wrote:
>
>> The Globe and Mail, Saturday Sept. 25, 1999, p. D2
>> Dreary as Ottawa was, it was in the end a better place than New York
>> by Germaine Greer
<snip>
>> Though I love New York, I disapprove of it. Dreary as Ottawa was, it
>> was in the end a better place than New York. Canadians believe that
>> happiness is living in a just society; they will not sing the Yankee
>> song that capitalism is happiness, capitalism is freedom. Canadians have
>> a lively sense of decency and human dignity. Though no Canadian can
>> afford freshly squeezed orange juice, every Canddian can have juice made
>> from concentrate. Thae lack of luxury is meant to coincide with the
>> absence of misery. It doesn't work altogether, but the idea is worth
>> defending.
>>
>> **********
>> It's flattering that Germaine Greer sees more dignity and social justice
>> in Canadian society..but along comes the new right and the Harris
>> government rushing blindly to push us into the same thing
>
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I worked in Ottawa for two years and love it to pieces.
One ?significant? comparison between the US and Canada lies inthe
Constitutions:
* The US focus on "Life, liberty and the pusuit of happiness."
As compared to:
* The Canadian focus on "Peace, order and good government."
The former is the personal agenda, the second relates to our social needs
(I've an essay about this, but i know that I speak and post too much
already.)
Whether this comparison over-rides (or perhaps? underpins)
action-in-legislation I don't know, but the culture of the two countries is
as marked as might be (perhaps the results of different banking
systems/ethoses - is the plural of ethos ethoses?)
Dance well, friends,
j
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