Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XXXII
time to re-home
as Canada Is Closed Now
gets loud and colder
in early snowfall these choices
I make re-make me
FYI: This is a sequel/answer to my tanka prose below:
Re-Homing?
During his much-anticipated debut appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, bantered with the host throughout most of the interview. Answering trivial questions Americans might have for Canadians, he got canned laughter and applause as he tried to set Canada apart from the U.S. His host prompted, "But I don't know everything I should know about Canada. Imagine I come from a country that think mostly about themselves. I hear really good things about Canada, then sell me."
The Prime Minister's response was typical at first. "Canada is the best country in the world, has beautiful mountains, rivers, lakes, ...Oh, and Canada has three coasts: east, west and the Arctic." Then he paused for a moment with his media-trained smile and continued to emphasize Canadian uniqueness. "The thing is, everyone focuses on the land, but really, Canada is about the people. It’s a range of people from every possible background who come together and -- a little different from the melting pot in the United States where everyone gets to be American -- we try to celebrate differences, and people keep their cultures and keep their languages."
I turn off the TV and go to bed, but I cannot sleep and stare through a hole in the attic roof at a dreamless sky. The Prime Minister's photogenic smile and lofty words keep hovering my mind, recalling his 2015 campaign slogan: "My friends, sunny way, sunny way! Real change is on the way."
stuck in traffic
as lines of protesters chant
"no more immigrants" ...
I wonder if beside my name
the hidden asterisk re-emerges
during lunch break
I drink another cup of coffee
dark and bitter ...
behind my back coworkers mimic
"you're flawed not a fraud"
streaks of crimson
swallowed by the night sky ...
the cries of snow geese
again rewilding
my immigrant heart
(Note: Chinese Mandarin speakers often have a tough time learning l's and r's later in life)
Toronto Star, Nov.14: Clear majority of Canadians now say there’s too much immigration: The results from the long-term tracking poll break with a quarter-century of results.
Make That Change, Nov.30: How 2024 Changed Immigration to Canada Forever
And Reuters, Dec. 2: Canada pulls refugee welcome mat, launches ads warning asylum claims hard
TORONTO (Reuters) - Once presenting itself as one of the world's most welcoming countries to refugees and immigrants, Canada is launching a global online ad campaign cautioning asylum-seekers that making a claim is hard.
The C$250,000 ($178,662) in advertisements will run through March in 11 languages, including Spanish, Urdu, Ukrainian, Hindi and Tamil, the immigration department told Reuters. They are part of a broader shift in tone by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's unpopular government on immigration and an effort to clamp down on refugee claims.
Migrants have been blamed for high housing prices, although some experts argue this is a simplistic explanation, and polls show a growing number of Canadians think the country admits too many newcomers.
The four-month campaign is budgeted to cost a third of the total spend on similar advertisements over the previous seven years.
And CBC News, Nov. 19: Skilled newcomers are leaving Canada in record numbers
Added:
smell of winter
boxes of youthful dreams
behind the outhouse
Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XIV
Beneath the Moon, under the Sun
late night jazz
with shades of moonlight
this simple lift, yet...
gold-tinted morning
half awake to this world
bitcoin-crazed
FYI: The New Yorker, Dec. 8: How Long Will the Trump Crypto Boom Last?
As a pro-crypto Administration prepares to take power and crypto investors cheer, there are some parallels with the dot-com boom of the late nineties.
Under the leadership of Gary Gensler, whom President Joe Biden nominated as chair in 2021, the agency had taken an aggressive approach toward an industry that Gensler described as rife with fraud and scams. The S.E.C. filed lawsuits against numerous crypto firms, including the crypto exchange Coinbase and the digital-payment network Ripple.
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