For the last few years, in a world that has survived over thousands of centuries, our provincial government now in power has got its knickers in a knot over a group of people whose language had diminished from being the third largest group in Canada to now in 2024 representing only a tenth of the Quebec population.
So, what does a nation’s culture actually include? A nation’s culture is made up of attitudes, customs, behavior, rituals, arts and music, beliefs, religion, and language. Culture matters because people matter.
Some societies seem to want to divide us, but cultural differences don’t have to build walls between us. Once we begin to know someone else’s culture, we begin to reach out and give someone the dignity of trying to understand them better.
A longtime neighbour and best friend of mine who grew up in a French family, once explained to me that language is like a car: some people drive Fords, some drive Chevs, some drive Toyota or Dodge. Some people are very dedicated and don’t tell them your car is better than theirs! Some people speak French, some speak English, some speak Dutch, some speak Spanish, etc. Don’t tell them that they speak the wrong language. Cars are but a means of transportation, and a language is only a means of communication.
We have an excellent temporary worker on our farm who comes from South America, and even after working for five summers in this province, he doesn’t feel comfortable speaking either English or French, but through the technology of a cell phone app he can speak Spanish into his phone and we can listen to him in whatever language we want at the other end of the phone call.
Beyond language, some of the other parts of different cultures can be much harder (or impossible) to change. Tale attitude, for example. When I get up in the morning, I can decide to be happy or grumpy for the day. If I decide to be happy and meet the world with a smile, I find that the entire day is a lot more enjoyable. Some people seem to have a problem making that decision.
Then there are customs. In some countries, females are not treated as equals. In some countries a younger person is never accepted as equal to someone older. As for behaviour, arrogance never gained any respect from me. Rituals are interesting to understand, but a high degree of acceptance by everyone is rare.
Arts, music, dance, and songs, on the other hand, are what make different cultures so extremely interesting and engaging. When you participate in Saint Patty’s Day, Oktoberfest, Saint John the Baptist Day, Mardi Gras or Canada Day celebrations you will totally understand. When a group of older French-Canadian men get together to sing traditional French songs, to me, that joie de vivre is true Quebec culture.
Differences in beliefs and religions are our world’s two largest sources of conflict. In some cases, religion has prevented people from having a more comfortable life. I am told that there are more than 4,300 religions in the world, and most of us pray that we can get to the same place when we die, but people cannot get along. What will happen if and when we do get to that heavenly place? How will we get along then?
It seems to me that greed for power and money are the two main reasons for conflict in our world, country, province, etc. Often, the wanna-be leaders use the divide-and-conquer method to turn one religion or language against another to get the battle started. If I only accepted friends who had the same skin colour, the same religion, spoke the same language, drove the same colour and make of car on the same side of the road, sang the same song, danced the same, ate only meat and potatoes, and voted the same way, then I would have only a very small percentage of my friends.
It is a lot more fun to try to accept other people’s opinions and understand and enjoy cultural differences. Try to explain that to your wanna-be politicians.
