Since Remembrance Day (or Veteran's Day in the U.S.) fell on a weekend for a change, my wife, son and I were able to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in our town since we don't have to work, as what has been the usual case. I typically try my best to observe Remembrance Day every year since I was a kid, and our workplace observes moments of silence followed by the playing of The Final Post as well as a reading of Flander's Fields.
We ended up attending an outdoor Remembrance Day memorial in our town, in a historic part of town that already had a veteran's memorial set up. Now, a little about our town. The official population of our town proper as well as the surrounding areas that are considered part of our town is around 810,000. Around 50-60% of our town is comprised of visible minorities, the bulk of that being Asians (Chinese in this case) and South Asians (Indian/Sri Lankan). This is reflected in my son's school class which has something like 75% Asian/South Asian student composition. Our town's member of Parliament (MP) in the Canadian House of Commons has an Asian wife, and our member of Provincial parliament (MPP) at Queen's Park is an Asian guy.
Yet at the outdoor Remembrance Day ceremony today to honour our country's veterans, both past and present, I was pretty shocked and terribly disappointed to see that 99% (if not more) of the about 1100 people or so who showed up were Caucasian. Where were all the Asians? As I scanned the crowd, I saw only a few (literally) Asian faces. One was the wife of the MP and the other was the wife of the MPP. I literally only saw two other Asians besides them in the crowd.
I am having a hard time reconciling what I saw today. I don't understand - our schools more than teach the importance and observance of Remembrance Day, and I was glad to see a number of kids there, but virtually no Asian kids. It is on the weekend, so I don't think there's any excuse for people to not make it out to a Remembrance Day ceremony. If anything, I would think that minorities should be even more grateful the for sacrifices men and women have made over the years in order to protect not only our basic freedoms, but also uphold a culture which allows multiculturalism and the opportunity for different cultures to coexist. I was thoroughly disappointed to see so few minority group representation at the memorial service, especially considering our town's ethnic makeup. On the way back home, we passed by an Asian mall, and it was, of course, packed to the brim. *sigh*
I wondered whether I was being a tad oversensitive here, but my impression today (and this may be a bit harsh) was that Asians in my town appear to not care too much about honouring veterans, if the lack of their presence at the ceremony was any indication. In watching some TV coverage of Remembrance Day ceremonies this evening, it showed other towns nearby which had similar ceremonies and as the camera panned the crowed, it seemed like an identical shot of the ceremony that I attended.
I guess I'm a bit saddened by this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'm surprised that you were surprised
Perhaps I was too naive to expect otherwise, but it's still disappointing nonetheless. I'm still trying to put my finger on WHY there was such nonexistent turnout by Asians.
Post a Comment