OUR CITY TODAY - LEARNING ABOUT THE WHOLE WORLD FROM HOME

Being a veteran of 30 years of Metro Toronto Caravan from the time it began in 1969, I have always been interested in learning about other people's cultures and traditions.

This multicultural event sometimes featured as many as 50 different locations.
These were spread out all over the city and each location was given the name of a city in another country of the world. Each one featured a display of items from the countries culture, foods you could buy and eat, some souvenirs and best of all music and dance performances. This was two weeks of nightly cultural education, with a booklet called a passport, stamped at the door of each location.

I remember one year eating the food of Indonesia, seeing the cloth and costumes, hearing their music and seeing the dances and being astonished by a brief film shown about the countries. I was shocked to realize that there were 140 million people I knew nothing about.

As Multicultural immigration grew in Toronto, Toronto, always a city of neighbourhoods, began to offer up a cornucopia of ethnic foods and culture. I think it became less unusual to be able to eat foods from most of the world because they were more available throughout the year, rather than just when the two week special event took place.

Ethiopian cabbies are stunned when I know about the amazing rock churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia, carved out of solid rock below the earth around the 12th century by Orthodox Christians.

Parisian Basques are surprised that I want to try Basque Ham at The Last Metro restaurant in Paris, and that I know about Izarra liqueur but have only seen yellow and not green versions on a poster where I eat crepes at home.

Among the wildly hospitable Parisians of 2006 Bucket List, Basque generosity, gave me shot samples of both liqueurs, and let up on, what I suspect was teasing me, (in mercifully unintelligible patois).

It is debatable whether governments and organizations trying to legislate equality and understanding of other cultures and countries by number counting, do as well as individual people do on their own, meeting with newcomers to the city, eating new foods and learning about new cultures.

I think that, the more we get to know and interact with other groups, whether they are people of other religions, cultures or races; the more we will learn and, I believe, value, the rich heritage and cultures that they add to the city we live in.

Already, in addition to established restaurants from all over the world, we have many new cultural events in our city throughout the year. This gives us a chance on a more regular basis to learn more about our newer neighbours and their lives, customs as well as trying new foods. 

I think our daily lives are richer because we learn more today than our brief vacations out of the country previously could teach us about other countries and people.

I find it good that every time I experiment with a new food and culture around my city, that I come home having learned a lot I didn't know about the people around me and am always happier for it. 

 
SEE ALSO: MERGING CULTURES AND RELIGIONS - FAMILIES TODAY

Note: OUR CITY TODAY -  LEARNING ABOUT THE WHOLE WORLD FROM HOME and the essay I mention just above this note were originally one long essay trying to talk about more than one subject and possibly not doing justice to either. Rewritten today May 21, 2013 and newly published, I hope they do more justice to both subjects as separate essays.