I am Canadian*

You might have noticed that, even though I live in Canada and am a Canadian citizen, most of my «political» or «cultural» posts are about the United States and the Bush Administration. Even with the recent federal election, I didn't show much interest in Canadian politics. There's nothing wrong with Canada, on the contrary. It's just that, compared to other countries, and especially to the US nowadays, Canada is pretty boring, and kinda easy to take for granted.

But reading this piece of news (http://tinyurl.com/pju6w) scared me straight again: A couple in in Scituate, Rhode Island, Mr. & Mrs Soehnge, decided to pay off their Mastercard balance because it has reached an unhealthy level. They send in a cheque for $6,522. Wrong move. All hell broke loose.

«After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed. So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called. [...]

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking. They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Walter called television stations, the American Civil Liberties Union and me. And he went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act. [...]

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.»

Now let me regale you with another anecdote about another member of my family who has also fallen under the US spell, but in a much worse way than myself.

I have a cousin living in Ottawa who just had a tumor removed from his brain. The operation went well and he's out of the hospital now. His sister sent an email with the latest news to all our family members in Paris, Montreal, California, etc.. to keep us all informed. She also included an email from the cousin's wife. Wrong move. Let me quote wifey's message:

«After eating few spoons of soup at lunch, Yung [my cousin] walked to the hallway with me for a short walk. His dressing on his head was off today also, 19 staples. [...] Yung's problem was so minor compared with the frontline on the Ottawa Citizen today "Just another day in Iraq", a flashback of Vietnamese war images ... Instead of praying for Yung, please pray for the all the people involved in the Iraq at this moment.»

All hell broke loose: the poor sister was bombarded with emails from the family heaping abuses on the wife, and had to send emails all around apologizing on behalf of her sister-in-law. We're still at a loss, trying to understand what on earth moved her to ask us not to pray for her own husband, but for complete strangers, foreigners fighting a unjust war condemned by 95% of Canadians.


* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Canadian