Canada Notes 1

As an African visiting a ‘Western’ country for the first time I have been surprised, shocked, amused, amazed, intrigued and confused by a number of things. Among the amazing things of living in the ‘west’ is the personal and individual freedom that people here enjoy.

People are let free to have their own opinions and they’re not dismissed for voicing them. Also if you live in someone else’s home you will be left the privilege to choose what you want to eat among what is placed on the table and in which quantity. If you tell someone that you don't want to speak they will take their mental notes and press no further and if they are well brought up they will return later to ask you if you're okay.

Among the confusing things is the fact that so much fear exists in the west too. People are very afraid to speak to each other in a restaurant, public transport or on road sides. As a newly arrived, I tried to ask directions from one individual at a train station, he run away from me twice and since then I decided never to ask for directions on the streets.

This fear is even worse for black people irrespective of them being African or not.
Black people here are thought to be violent and when I have walked into a strange place I have sensed stares of worry, fear and terror directed towards me. Over the weekend I went with a friend to a banking centre and after being bored inside I decided to walkout and wait for my colleague from the parking yard.

When I reached the parking yard, there was a lady seated inside one of the vehicles in the parking yard, she had seen me coming through the driving mirror and I had not seen her. By the time I reached the window of her car, it was open and she was speaking on phone. The lady looked at me with such shock that I was scared and looked around me to see if something was taking place behind my back. I never understood her reaction and so I told my colleague about it. He told me that it was a normal reaction and that the lady was scared thinking that I was about to pull a gun. It was disheartening to learn.

I discussed this with another friend who goes to an influential university in the country. He told me that this fear of people and strangers is embedded in the culture of capitalism. According to him, capitalism creates competition among people that we all start to see each other as threats to opportunities and resources. In another explanation he added that the culture of fear and suspicion was rooted in the fact in a capitalistic society people are welcome according to what they can bring on the table. If you’re talented or provide a certain satisfaction you will be welcome in this society and made to feel comfortable. This to a certain extent justifies the respect and fame that showbiz commands in these

societies. In a purely individualistic society, someone is likely to stab you with a knife if you have a possession of value or deemed t be of value. Therefore the guy walking behind you on the street is very fearful of you because he thinks that the temptation you have to turn back and cut off his arm and run with his watch, CD walking, Ipod, mobile phone is very high. The better that he keeps a distance between you and him. And should you need to ask anything from him or try a conversation, it will get off on a very awkward note and chances are that it will end briefly thereafter.

This adds on the fact that because a capitalistic society is mostly about production, suspicion and consumption, individuals have little time to interact or develop deep relationships with each other or it is useless to have such relationships because these individuals have so much knowledge of what they are like and what exactly they need or demand. Therfore, it is easy to start a friendship here and end it there without making much effort in trying to change its direction or improve it should it have weaknesses. People don’t trust each other and most relationships start with trying to figure out each other although discretely what you really are. People are usually making mental notes here about each other.


This state of affairs creates a situation in which pet animals especially dogs are sacred. One journalist told me when I tried to get job in a community newspaper that if “if you love dogs everything else here is simple,” A woman/man will invest all her resources in a dog because she is fearful of what will happen when she gets in a ‘couple’ relationship with a man. She/he is afraid of the demands of a man, a relationship; friendship because he demands of such a relationship will be many.

It is possible that neighbours don’t know each other’s names but they know the names of each other’s dogs and the dogs-will communicate more than the people that own. Yesterday I was told the a dog in this country is more important than a man. In order of importance life here creatures are important starting with children, women, dogs, men and old people, this is what one person that has lived in Canada for seven years told me.

Today I was inspired to write about dogs after watching a programme on television where a woman adopted a dog when she was still single. The dog died later and she bought another one and then got two more. She found a man afterwards and the dogs stayed in the home But from the programme I watched, the dogs were given such treatment that I felt that man was just an accessory in the woman’s home.

Because of the love that the lady had for her dogs they had never got a chance to go to a honeymoon after their marriage because they had no where to leave the dogs. They later hired a nanny for dogs. But it was clear when the woman spoke during the show that the dogs were the most important part of her life.