Learning the Flags on Embassy Row

I was a single dad for the past nine days because Almudena was off in Oxford and Bonn for work. She brought me back a nice bottle of German mead, so all is forgiven. One of the nice things about taking care of Julián solo is I get to take him to school. It's right next to where Almudena works so usually that's her job.

Julián loves the bus. He already has several "bus friends", some of the drivers know his name, and he likes to read the numbers of the passing buses. Must be his mother's mathematical mind. His school is along embassy row, so I've been teaching him the flags. There's no better way to show off than to have your three year-old shout out, "Look, the flag of Colombia!!!"

What strikes me is how much the embassies symbolize their countries. The French embassy is a marble palace. The Japanese have a clean, modern office building. The American embassy is a fortress.

And the embassy of Canada, my own country? A little office in an upper floor of a nondescript building tucked away on a side street. Ah well.

Canadian Arctic Not What It Used To Be

In more depressing news about the state of the Arctic, a 4,500 year-old shelf of ice has broken off from Ellesmere Island. The BBC reported that a nineteen-square-mile section, about three times the size of Manhattan, is now floating around the ocean. It's getting bad on the other islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago too. What people often forget is that not only is this a scary symptom of global warming, but these ice shelves are actually very fragile ecozones that are now in serious danger of disappearing.

I've always been fascinated with Arctic exploration. When I was a kid I loved the stories of explorers such as Hudson and Barents navigating between ice floes and having run-ins with polar bears. I loved looking at maps of the Arctic and wondering about all those islands with the strange names--Ellesmere, Baffin, Devon. I wondered what it would be like to be trekking across their huge expanses of ice. Looks like I'll never know.

Obama's Nomination: A New America? Maybe, Maybe Not

Well, history has been made. A U.S. political party has finally nominated an African-American as its candidate for president.

While I'm very happy and this is an amazing moment, we do need to put this in perspective. The Civil War ended 143 years ago, so this was a long time coming. Also, racism is still rife in U.S., witness the huge round of applause Rep. Geoff Davis (KY-R) when he referred to Obama as a "boy" at a Republican event. Speaking of the Civil War, did anyone else catch the irony of this guy's name?

Last month here in Madrid I met an African socialist who said Obama was "white power with a black face." That's a bit cynical, but if I was an African socialist I'd be cynical too. He does have a point, though. Just how much can Obama really change the power structure in the U.S.? Or change its deep-rooted racism? We've heard these promises before, by other candidates who were probably well intentioned too, and little has changed.

I'm also worried that he will become the ultimate in tokenism. People will think, "How can we be a racist country if we have a black candidate?" Quite easily, as a matter of fact. Whites might consider him "one of the good ones" and continue thinking as they've always thought.

On the other hand, maybe this is the start of something new. I teach university students, and one thing I've noticed is that there a lot more interracial couples than there were when I was in college almost twenty years ago. That's a good sign. Plus people are beginning to recognize the lasting legacy of slavery. Which brings me to:

I apologize for slavery. I'm Canadian, and Canadians like to be smug about the fact that slavery was always illegal in our country, but we were part of the British Empire. My family was middle class, and all white middle class people in the Empire benefited directly or indirectly from the slave trade. So I'm sorry I got an unfair advantage and you got burdened with all this crap. Yeah, this doesn't change anything, but it had to be said.

And yes, I am embarrassed the state of Virginia beat me to it.

Oh, and sorry to the Native Americans for the genocide. Interesting how that still gets ignored.