Sochi 2014 - Oh Canada!

That's it, 25 medals in 2 weeks.
Today was the last day of the winter olympics in Sochi, Russia.
It was with a lot of emotions that I have watched the olympics religiously over the last 15 days, from 7pm to 11pm.

The whole gamut of emotions included nostalgia of the last olympics in Vancouver and my time there; the excitement of hearing 'Oh Canada' and the feeling of kinship when the Canadian gold medallists cried watching the Canadian flag being hoisted and sadness when the Canadian athletes did not make it through to the podium.

Of course, in a country where hockey is almost a religion, that sport was the main focus for most Canadians. I, however, was more elated by the double Gold we won in curling than the double Gold in hockey. I got hooked watching curling in Vancouver. Although I never followed through to watch it outside of the olympics, when the Canadian curlers hit the ice this time around, I was hooked again. I spent more late nights watching curling than watching hockey. I know more about the curlers than any of the hockey players. In fact, I did not even wake up early this morning to watch the gold medal game for the men, against Sweden.
Errrr, can they revoke my citizenship if I admit this online? I hope not.

As for any olympics, the media brings you focus to specific athletes and sports. Here in Canada, hockey always steals the spotlight. The women's curling finals were overshadowed by the women's hockey team winning gold. Just like the men's curling team's win was overshadowed by the semifinals between the USA and Canada for men's hockey. Because the men's hockey final game is on the last day of the Olympics, that is what the media is talking about today and will continue to talk about when they talk of the Sochi games. What about curling though? The women's curling team was undefeated throughout these games! The men's curling was defending the gold Canada won in Vancouver. What about the double gold in moguls in the first few days of the games? This is unfair! The world must perceive us as a nation of moguls, curling AND hockey. At least until the next Olympics.

"We're sorry. The country you are trying to reach is not available at the moment because of Hockey, Curling OR moguls. Please try again later."

Oh Canadian music!

I have heard a very nice song from Amy Seeley about two and a half months ago and it got stuck in my head. It is not the kind of music I would typically listen to, but that one touched me...well, surprisingly so!

I have listened to it a few times after that and it touched me deeply every single time. Then, I forgot about it....
But I was watching TV the other day and an Ikea commercial came on and I was convinced it was Amy Seeley...but it was not.
The song in the commercial was from Mary Milne, also a Canadian artist.



I guess it is not the same voice, but it is the same feeling. And in my musical ignorance and having not listened to Amy lately, I was convinced, incorrectly so, that both songs are from the same artist. Kudos to me for actually googling it! From now on, I shall broaden my musical horizons and listen to more Canadian artists! (I could not figure out if Amy Seeley is actually Canadian, but she does live in Alberta!)....now, where do I start?

Where I come from...

I was watching TV the other day and the commercial for Ancestry.com came up and I thought to myself  'There's no way I could find my ancestors on there!'.

I know that my grandmother on my mother's side is Mauritian. Her mom comes from China. I know nothing about her husband, he died young and we barely talk about him. I do not know anything about my dad's parents. They both passed away before I was born. My dad's father only lived long enough to make sure that the family name will survive (my brother being that dream fulfilled). My dad's mother died young, reason unknown to me.

So, I cannot even fill out the 3rd row from the bottom of the tree below. How could a website like ancestry.com help me?

Most Mauritians of chinese descent in my generation are 2nd or 3rd generation Mauritians. Maybe it's just me, but all I know is that sometime, somewhere, my ancestors decided that they should take a risk and cross the Indian Ocean on a boat for what they hoped was a brighter future. My dad still has some family in China, I don't know where exactly. I don't even know my grandparents' names. I could probably find out by looking at my parents' birth certificates. That I guess could be a starting point. It is unlikely that much more could be found though.Not by me anyways. Not knowing the language written or spoken is a major disadvantage here. They definitely didn't have computers back then to know who left the country and when (they probably do not track the 1.3 billion of people there now, so why would they do it 70-80 years ago? And how would they have done it? With scrolls? So I almost want to challenge Ancestry.com here, but they probably require more than a name and a date of birth to do so.

My sister-in-law is expecting. I was overjoyed when I learned about the pregnancy. This baby will be the first baby of the next generation for my family. Although she is not born yet, I already love her. I cannot wait to see her face and figure out what she gets from our side of the family and what she gets from her mom's side.

What would my brother tell her about where she comes from though? Great-grandparents are from China, grandparents are from Mauritius, dad is from Mauritius, mom is from Singapore and.....aunt is in Canada. Such a long story already, yet only the tip of the iceberg!! What about our forefathers who made the life-changing decision to leave their hometown, braved the months at sea and started a new life in a strange country, ruled by a different ethnic group. I can only imagine what it was like. None of my ancestors was famous, or particularly gifted, or particularly rich, yet they have undeniably paved the way for us. Without them, I probably wouldn't be here in Canada, doing what they did some 70 years ago, establishing roots in a new country, away from the rest of the family.

For that, I am grateful.

Citizen C

I became a legal Canadian citizen a few days ago.
Unless one has gone through the process, very few would know what it entails. For most of us, we are citizens of the country we were born in, or grew up in. I have no clue how to become a Mauritian citizen, but going through the process of calling Canada 'my' country definitely made me think of what it means to be from that country.

Having been in Canada for the last 10 years less the 18 months plus holidays I took out of the country, I have, I think, assimilated enough Canadianism to fool people into thinking I am from here. With the odd intonation on some words and a hint of an accent, the ignorance of slang words and expressions, the obvious cluelessness when it comes to social or historical events that happened before my landing here, I blend in quite well with the hordes of immigrants who call this country home. Would I however think of myself as Canadian when asked?

I have taken pride in displaying my bilingualism and my Asian descent despite being born in an African country. It amazes people that coming from such a tiny island, I am faring well in gigantic Canada away from my parents and closest relatives. It surprises even more that I am not alone. There is a big Mauritian community in the Canadian ranks, those who settled decades earlier when Canada was just this distant country where it snows and that promises success and wealth, to those who, like me, came to study with the financial support of their parents and stayed because it offers more opportunities that we would otherwise have back home.
Here, I did it again. 'Home' is Mauritius in this case. When I go visit Mauritius though, home is Canada. I am lucky that I may hold dual citizenship, I am therefore not obliged to choose. Of course I would choose according to my mood and advantage, that cannot be helped. But have I not been able to keep my Mauritian citizenship, the decision to become Canadian wouldn't have been that easy. Being Mauritian is part of my identity. In my heart I know I will always be Mauritian. It does not however mean that I feel any less kinship with my fellow Canadians. Canada is forging some traits of my personality just as well as Mauritian society moulded my identity. Give it another decade or so and I'm sure when asked, I will truthfully claim to be Canadian. For now at least, I may say that I am grateful to have been welcomed into the Great North's family with open arms, as the picture attests, by others who have gone through the process themselves as well as those who feel proud that people all over the world want to call their country home. Viva Canada! :)

Brain drain or the exodus of the new generation...

Today, I've read an article in the NY times where the subject is about Germany and the loss of its younger and highly skilled population.
I couldn't help but notice how true it is of the Mauritian population also. People try to seek a better future elsewhere, be it in Canada, Australia, the States, the UK or even Singapore and in doing so, the best and brightest, most often than not, are lost to their home country. Here in MU, it is becoming ever so common that school leavers go abroad for college/university education and rare are those who ever come back. In fact, those who do come back to stay are usually those whose parents own a business (and hence, it's been understood that they will take over), those who couldn't get their residency papers in their adopted countries (therefore couldn't stay there), those who couldn't find work in their adopted countries (lack of money always bring children running back to their parents) or those who never adapted to life outside of their home country.

This exodus of the young could only be understood if you've lived here in MU. I've tried explaining this to my friends back in CA, and they could never understand why people would want to leave paradise island for snow-covered Canada. The prospect of earning more money (and in a currency that is recognized world-wide) aside, ".. the natural beauty and the sense of possibility", as the article so beautifully describes, is enough to appeal to the young and ambitious. Not only that, there is now another category of middle-agers who, trying to be a step ahead, are emigrating so that their teenage children could benefit from lower university fees when they finish high school.

It is interesting to note that those who study abroad and then come back to MU can expect to earn a slightly better salary (in some companies) than their peers who studied at the local university. This is only because there is the idea that the level of education abroad is better than the one delivered locally. I am not here to debate whether the level of instruction of the University of Mauritius is comparable to international levels, but if for anything else, just experiencing the world beyond our small island gives those who studied abroad a slight advantage. That said, I'll put my case to rest on that subject.

Another interesting fact is that often those who emigrated in their youth nurture the idea of coming back to MU in their old days. They may not want to stay all year round, the health care abroad being substantially more trusted, but they certainly wish to flee the cold winters abroad and find sunshine in our homeland.

So what changes should be made in MU to stop the brain drain you would ask?
Nothing much an individual could do, although if you're Prime Minister and you want to make your people WANT to stay, you could find a zillion ways to help. But I'm not here to criticize the government or anything else, God knows I'm not really an expert in politics or economy. I think, all people need to be happy here is (just like everywhere else) a little bit more money, less tax to pay, better health care and way way more entertainment!
But then, that's only my opinion and a very simplistic way to solve the problem.

For those who are just back in MU, from someone who's been back more than a year now, you will definitely get used to it again.........maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in a week.... but within a year for sure!

Slouching beings

I've been watching people walk by recently, people at work, people at supermarkets, people on the streets.
One noticeable thing that most people have in common, across generations and race, is that they slouch.
"Children carry huge over loaded backpacks, adults lug briefcases to work, and thousands of people spend hours hunched over a computer whether for work or play. " **
Because slumping into our chairs is easier than consciously sitting straight, people get into the habit without realizing it until someone brings it to their attention. Even then, most people will hold their spine straight for a few minutes before forgetting and reverting to their slouching positions.

Ageing already brings a slight slouch to our posture, but now, with worse sitting and standing postures, not only the population as a whole would soon be subscribing to regular visits to a chiropractor, but by the time we reach old age, we would all be bent in two with a who-can-do-better list of back problems. In countries such as CA, where chiropractor fees are covered by health insurance if they are justified and recommended by a doctor, more of taxpayers' money will be involved into paying for the cost of bad posture.

It takes real effort though to sit straight, bring back your shoulders, and walk tall and to remember doing this all day. But remember: "Change takes willpower! However … the rewards of good posture are well worth the effort. You will feel great and your physical appearance will look tall and confident! "**

**quoted from an article about posture tips.

Ant invasion

As the weather is getting irritatingly hotter, my house is getting invaded by ants from all angles.
They crawl in from the roof, they come in through the doors and windows, they invade the car, they come through the pipes, they build nests in my drawers, they crawl over the laundry...they are just EVERYWHERE.

Black ants that are just annoying and crawl at the speed of light, red ants that bite like crazy and that look for sweets, tiny red ants that just give you the creeps...you can find them all in my house. My parents have found that they can kill the ants by chalking up the places where the ants are likely to show up, so having lines and lines of chalk running up, down and along the walls is quite ordinary at home.

Sometimes though, when the ants are actively attacking something, be it some crumbs or food left on the table, or just a piece of cloth, it's better to use a spray that will kill them instantly! So sometimes you'd find my dad armed with a spray, killing the ants with poison spray in very strategic places. The thing is, however, that the ants might retaliate stronger, where you have once killed hundreds of ants, you come back 1 hr later to find thousands of them milling around the dead bodies of their contemporaries. I've just read an article that suggests it is best to kill the ants with a poison that they will bring back to their nest, therefore killing the whole nest in one go. I need to find such a poison so that my dad could retire from his role as the ant-fighter at home.

In CA, ants seldom come into the house. You could leave a chocolate on the table and find it weeks later at the same spot, without an ant around (you might not want to eat it though!). A good thing about Canada also is that food don't go stale as quickly as it does here. A bag of chips, left opened for a week, would still taste the same and as crisp as ever. Here, I've found bags of chips still sealed that have gone stale before the expiry date. So in a quest to keep away ants and to keep food from getting stale as much as possible, I've had to get back into the habit of using airtight containers and not leaving crumbs behind.

On that note, I dare the stupid ants to come, I'll sit tight with my chalk and poison spray and defend my territory.