Nightcrawler
Member
Ran into some Anti-Americanism in Canada; also made some friends
Well folks, I recently returned home from the North American Model United Nations conference in Toronto, Ontario. I sign up for Model UN because it's a fun class, we get to go on a trip, adn the instructor is a very intelligent, well-researched political science professor, who also happens to be a Vietnam vet and has a big shiny NRA belt buckle.
While I don't like the REAL UN very much, Model UN is an interesting experience, and knowing what the other guy is thinking is always a good thing.
I was representing Colombia, though since one person from another school was sick I got to play the United States too. One of our topics in my committee was small arms proliferation.
I found it difficult to keep my own feelings at bay, but I did have a chance to use my technical knowledge. I told the committee that we should all strive to know what we are talking about, and I ended up having to explain some technical nuances of firearms to people who had never handled one in their lives. It was an interesting exercise, to say the least, but I did one good thing: I broke the stereotype. Me, and like-minded members from my school, didn't fit the liberal Canadian stereotype of the American Gun Owner, and that can only be a good thing.
Anti-American sentiments were running high, though. At the Gala Dinner, the only speaker they could scrape up was a left wing Canadian carrer UN bureaucrat who spent half of his overlong speech bashing the US for the pending war with Iraq and other things. All of the University of Toronto and other Canadian students got up and clapped; the Americans booed him, and some of us walked out. He is, of course, entitled to his opinion, but didn't back up anything he said. Besides that, his anti American bigotry was totally unwelcome in a forum supposedly dedicated to diplomacy, and one which over half of its membership is American.
To be fair, many of the Canadian students apologized. For the MUN forum, they sent out hundreds of invitations for guest speakers, and he was one of ten that responded. He was the last one they had left for the Gala Dinner; the literal bottom of the barrel.
All in all, though, I had a good time, and made some Canadian friends. I got to show these folks that American gun owners aren't all beer-gutted hillbillies or whatever, and I learned quite a bit about the other guy's sentiments. Toronto is a beautiful city.
The trip back was interesting. WE got lost, had the highway (402, I believe) closed on us, got lost again, and ended up hitting a deer with the 15-passenger Univeristy Van we were in once we were back in the Upper Peninsula. The van was only damaged a little, but the driver swears he took the deer's head clean off.
In any case it was a great trip and I look forward to going back again next year.
Well folks, I recently returned home from the North American Model United Nations conference in Toronto, Ontario. I sign up for Model UN because it's a fun class, we get to go on a trip, adn the instructor is a very intelligent, well-researched political science professor, who also happens to be a Vietnam vet and has a big shiny NRA belt buckle.
While I don't like the REAL UN very much, Model UN is an interesting experience, and knowing what the other guy is thinking is always a good thing.
I was representing Colombia, though since one person from another school was sick I got to play the United States too. One of our topics in my committee was small arms proliferation.
I found it difficult to keep my own feelings at bay, but I did have a chance to use my technical knowledge. I told the committee that we should all strive to know what we are talking about, and I ended up having to explain some technical nuances of firearms to people who had never handled one in their lives. It was an interesting exercise, to say the least, but I did one good thing: I broke the stereotype. Me, and like-minded members from my school, didn't fit the liberal Canadian stereotype of the American Gun Owner, and that can only be a good thing.
Anti-American sentiments were running high, though. At the Gala Dinner, the only speaker they could scrape up was a left wing Canadian carrer UN bureaucrat who spent half of his overlong speech bashing the US for the pending war with Iraq and other things. All of the University of Toronto and other Canadian students got up and clapped; the Americans booed him, and some of us walked out. He is, of course, entitled to his opinion, but didn't back up anything he said. Besides that, his anti American bigotry was totally unwelcome in a forum supposedly dedicated to diplomacy, and one which over half of its membership is American.
To be fair, many of the Canadian students apologized. For the MUN forum, they sent out hundreds of invitations for guest speakers, and he was one of ten that responded. He was the last one they had left for the Gala Dinner; the literal bottom of the barrel.
All in all, though, I had a good time, and made some Canadian friends. I got to show these folks that American gun owners aren't all beer-gutted hillbillies or whatever, and I learned quite a bit about the other guy's sentiments. Toronto is a beautiful city.
The trip back was interesting. WE got lost, had the highway (402, I believe) closed on us, got lost again, and ended up hitting a deer with the 15-passenger Univeristy Van we were in once we were back in the Upper Peninsula. The van was only damaged a little, but the driver swears he took the deer's head clean off.
In any case it was a great trip and I look forward to going back again next year.
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