From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: Canada vs. Germany (was: Re: Car inspections..)
Date: 31 Jul 92 16:45:45 GMT
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Organization: Curious Goods (formerly Louis Vendredi Antiques)

kunz@iti.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Thomas Kunz) writes:

>I'm currently a Ph.D.  student at the Technical University of
>Darmstadt and just returned from a ten month research visit 
>with the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Here are my qualifications (-;: I'm a Canadian currently engaged to a
German (US Permanent resident) and get along very well with her family
... so I get impressions second-hand from them and other Europeans
that I know and hang out with (will get over there soon, before the
in-laws get run out of Sicily ... (-;).

>1) Canada does have some great scenery (but see above)

Agreed; while the beaches on Long Island and California are great and
there are no equivalents back in Canada, I find that in general
eastern Canada has much wider, better kept roads that are much less
cluttered with advertising trash than here in the eastern U.S.

However, the pictures that I've been shown of the Alps (my love is
from Munich, but only her father is hardcore Bavarian ... you know
what I mean) aren't so shabby, either.  It's up there with what I've
seen when living in Alberta and British Columbia.

>2) Canadians in general seem to be much more open towards different
>   cultures than Germans.

While Canada prides itself as a mosaic, a lot of that is talk because
new immigrants will not jetison their native culture overnight, and
the percentage of minorities is supposedly half that of the U.S. all
across the board (that may have changed over the past couple of years
though) without a 10% Black population like America (Canadian Blacks
are primarily Caribbeans, and are just a minority like the rest of us
(I'm neither white nor black, BTW)).  Thus, there is a higher level of
integration among young people (2nd generation) born to immigrants.

Also, there is no one identity that makes one uniquely "Canadian";
classic U.K. English Canadian and Canadien-Francais (Quebecois,
Acadien, Manitobain) are but two general possibilities of many.

>3) World politics are important to me, and I think that Canada plays
>   a better role here than Germany. Canadians do have a pretty good
>   track record for their partcipation in UN peace corps missions.

Part of this history stems from the collection of guidelines that we
non-Germans would consider to act as your Constitution.  Germany has
been restricted to NATO-only, and that was for the Western part.  It
was hard to have a national mission in things like peacekeeping when
your country was split up.

>   The new, unified Germany tries to play a world role similar to
>   the one of a superpower.

My own impression is that the Kohl government is being pressed into
this position by the other G7 powers because of its relative economic
strength.  Plus, there's another element that wants to catch up with
the French, another middle power that "plays like a big man" (quoting
hockey commentator Don Cherry).

>4) What bugs me most in Germany right now is that everyone seems to
>   be in an anxious mood.

There's a lot happening in the world, and none of our western
economies are in the best of shape right now.

>   It is very hard to have an unemotional, fact-oriented debate going
>   on about anything. Even my mom starts using expressions like "ticking
>   time-bomb" and so on.

Sounds like a Canadian discussion on the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement!

gld
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare				Elections 1992-93:
> gld@cunixB.cc.columbia.EDU		* Jean Chretien (Canada)
> gld@cunixc.BITNET			* Perot^H^H^H^H^H Elvis! (USA)