What's Next? 31

Today, on Canada Day, instead of O Canada, this being Canada, my earworm de jour happens to be the Colombian national anthem.  Here it is, Gentle Reader if you want to have a listen:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPSL78YDyZY.  Now it goes without saying that Canada has a much higher standard of living in general, than Colombia and for many reasons this is a better place to live.  But, as I just mentioned in an email to a friend, I have never in my life felt anything resembling "True Patriot Love" for this country I was born in.,  There is much that I admire and respect about Canada,  There is also much that has me screaming, wringing my hands and wishing I had enough hair left on my head so I could pull it out. And, I imagine that if I were to live in Colombia, I would very quickly find at least a few things to complain about.  I have already been to that beautiful and troubled country on three extended visits, and I also expect to return next year.

There is no such thing as a perfect country, just as there is no such thing as a perfect human being.  I mentioned to my same friend in an email that we are equally strong and resilient and weak and fragile.  That paradox is what makes us so indelibly human, and we had might as well embrace it because our imperfectness will not be going away anytime soon.  Despite acute annoyance with my kind, now is the time to be patient.  We are living with fear and heightened emotions and this is going to be our dominant theme and likely for a long time to come.

As much as I have come to love Colombia and Colombians, there is a culture of violence in that country such as is indelible throughout Latin America.  This isn't to say that Kumbaya is about to supplant O Canada but this is a relatively peaceful country, even with all the tubthumping that happens about the military every Remembrance Day.  Even if our dentists still have yet to acknowledge that teeth and gums are indeed part of the human body, we still have one of the best public healthcare systems in the world, and this has played a huge role in how well this country has dealt with the pandemic.   Still, I hope I live to see the day when free dental care comes under the public umbrella. 

I would also love to see Canada dismantle its military, like Costa Rica, and become a true pacifist state.  Yes, it can be done, and it has been done.  Costa Rica did it more than seventy years ago, they are a strategically located resource rich country, and ever since their military was disbanded in 1948 they have only been invaded by tourists.  Lots and lots of tourists, and now that the pandemic has the country under lockdown, they are finally getting to have a rest from the foreign locust hordes.  Yes, this can happen anywhere, and especially in dear little Canada.

I still see both Colombia and Costa Rica as looming very large in my future.  I have no idea what any of this is going to mean.  All for now, duckies!