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Since the PM, Stephen Harper mentioned the word nation a few days ago in his speech, referring to Qu�bec - the word made an astonishing “career”: last time I heard it on the TV news it became “the N-word“. To this stupidity the only normal reaction would be the f-word…

Diligent journalists dug up encyclopedias and dictionaries to clarify the etymology and the nuances of the word. Its meanings in different languages has been analyzed and explained. And the debate about the “united” Canada is up again. Maybe we are not that united…?

Let me add my version.
I am coming from a place that suffered a lot because of the French. Countries were cut up, borders re-drawn, artificial states created. And wars fought. I dare to say: if it wasn’t for the French foolishness at the peace treaties from Versailles and Trianon at the end of WWI - probably the second World War would never happened.

I don’t like the French.
When you say gloire - I think xenophobia.
When you say liberté, égalité, fraternité - I think nationalism and chauvinism.
When you say la nation - I think nation state (with the opression of the ethnic minorities).

Whatever bad things happened during the 20th century in Eastern/South-Eastern Europe - everything goes back to the glorious ideas invented by the French: nationalism, nation state, forced assimilation, chauvinism, ethnic cleansing. These were the wonderful gifts exported by the French to their Eastern European friends. Tribal gut reactions nicely dressed up in “enlightened” encyclopedist euphemisms.
So, I don’t like the French (I repeat it just to make it clear).

Now, speaking of Eastern Europe, I never really understood why the Canadians didn’t learn from the Czech? Do you remember the “velvet revolution” of 1989 in Czechoslovakia? Vaclav Havel and all the Charta77-signers, the promises of the new era?
Then suddenly in 1993 the Slovaks wanted out - because they felt they were a nation and they wanted to be independent etc. Big speeches, lots of nationalistic demagogy, high emotions and all that crap. Actually, there has never been a country with that name before, except a short period between 1939-45 with a fascist puppet government, an ally of Hitler.

Some of you may remember: the Czech nodded, and told them you are free to go. Just don’t take our currency, our passport, our pension, our industry. The Czech didn’t even blink, just opened the door and said s’il vous plait…

So, why cannot we let the “nation” go?

I am always daydreaming that one day a Canadian government will answer politely to all those separatist tirades with a yes, of course, please go… Just, s’il vous plait, leave the Canadian passport, the Canadian dollar, and don’t come back to ask anything. Oh, and let the “Indians” have a say where they want to live: in the new nation-state of yours or in Canada? And if they don’t want your new state, let them go - with their lands.
Adieu, mes amis, adieu…

I am afraid it will never happen, but wouldn’t it be a nice shock for them?
On a second thought, I should be more careful with that never thing. Around 1992 or 1993 on November 7th (remember, the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in the Soviet Union) I was in Budapest with an old friend from Germany and watching the news on the TV. We couldn’t believe our eyes: in Moscow the police dispersed an unauthorized Communist demonstration… For us, who lived decades under the Communist rule which was established before we were born and we thought it would never end - the view of the police beating the Communists on the Red Square was an unbelievable scene. However, it happened.