It’s a Small World. Literally.
I’m thinking about home again. It’s only natural to think about home at a time like this, now that I have a son. Sean is going to grow up with the advantage of two completely separate cultural traditions to learn from. I’m doing my best to make sure he has a connection to Newfoundland, but I worry about the future of our island.
The economy of Newfoundland hasn’t been strong since the collapse of the fishery. When I go home for a vacation I never see any of my old friends from high school or university; they’ve all moved away looking for work. When Sean grows up, will Newfoundland as I once knew it still exist? Or will he have to go to a theme park to see a simulation of what Newfoundland once might have been? I can see it now- there’d be animatronic fishermen in sou’westers and “I’se the bye” being played on a continuous loop over the PA. It’d be as accurate and lifelike as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney.
Maybe I’m being cynical. Maybe I’m just getting old and afraid of change. Eunsuk laughs every time I get emotional over the current state of tuna stocks. She doesn’t really understand what that’s about, just like I don’t really have any idea what it’s like to live under a military government.
So in the words of Bertold Brecht, what can be done about it? I should call my Jewish and Roma friends to ask them what’s involved in setting up a diaspora of our own. After all, there are plenty of Newfoundlanders in the world and we’re adding more all the time. It’s just that none of us live in Newfoundland anymore.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:50 am
is that giant beetle thing a mecha or a building?
November 6th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
A little of both. I was going to explain this in the comments, but then I got all carried away with my rant and forgot about it. That’s a basecrawler, a mobile habitat used on the asteroid colonies.