June 2002 - Nr. 6
Letter from the Editor
Dear Reader
The first Canadian German Festival is over. If not fun and frolic it was an earnest effort to build bridges between two countries, whatever that means. Ultimately people have to get together to make countries move closer to one another in ideology, in understanding. With 5 weeks of cultural events behind us, something for everyone it was hoped, hindsight might be a good teacher for any future events of this kind.
At
first an exchange of cultures and ideas as well as activities between the
people of two countries was the official target, to bridge the gap, to
handle any possible misconceptions between Canada and Germany and Germany
and Canada. And the photo exhibit in the Goethe Institute illustrated this
concept admiringly well. Both photographers, one from Berlin, one from
Toronto, had visited each other’s city and taken a shot at defining it. Both
came away with the impression of monotony, or rather, that is what they
chose to see as the important and defining character of Berlin and Toronto.
How far this lends understanding to the people of two countries is still to be found out. But then this was more an academic feature of the festival, as the panel discussion afterwards proved.
Most ordinary people tend to think that a picture, or pictures, should speak for themselves, and should not have to be explained. It is an academic habit to grill artists as to their intentions. And only if academia understands what the artist explains, can make plausible what he already said with his art, expound on it adequately, only then will someone declare it as good art, or not.
It is somewhat like the news on TV. The report just showed in not to be misunderstood terms the newsworthy events in full colour and running verbal description by a reporter, and immediately afterwards the experts get together and discuss ad nausium what everybody just saw and what it all means or not. This is of course necessary because the people are stupid and have to have it explained to them.
Artists too have to be brought to understanding what they did. They sometimes do not know it themselves. One has to draw it out of them, force them to come up with some significance that did not exist when they actually created this art. Some of them can be seen squirming in their seats at these panel discussions, or should they not better be called tribunals? But this is another matter for another time.
What I mean to say here is that this festival had all sorts of painful moments. Life is like that. Someone has a great idea that is meant to unify a large field and moves to find support. Unbeknownst to the enthusiast there are hidden minefields amongst a great many possible participants. No matter who the final players might be there will be fallout. Any group of people contains those that have broad and limited horizons. Some are liberal in the truest sense; others are cliquish in their behaviour while pretending to be the opposite. Some lend support freely and others only if certain criteria are met. Some people are allowed to play and some are not.
And what, not who decides in the end who can play. Namely money! And with that we have defined who calls the shots. It is not demand and supply. It is what a handful of people decide and how they present/camouflage their efforts. Enter the game of politics into the arena of business and do-gooders. A more destructive purpose was never designed. It is human nature! Yet so much real good will, so much real desire to help and drive forward a common purpose is the base of all human endeavours. We are just a tad too warped to make it a truly fun for all game.
How else could a truly superior soccer team loose to mere beginners in an old tradition? It takes two different styles of playing and a referee who does not know his business, and the result is an unsatisfactory outcome that defies all reason. Only one arbitrary has to slip in and the whole carefully designed house falls down. This offering was meant for the masses, who turned out only in the low thousands, not even in significant greater numbers in Toronto than Kitchener.
Well, we had many calls asking about the events, telling us they could not get through, could not get an answer, could not get tickets, and so on. People wanted to know why it was not advertised more often. And as usual, money was the answer. Most people are only concerned with what their buck will buy them, will do for themselves, not the group or its reputation. Besides, it is much easier to keep saying: Look what "they" are still doing to us…
But the whole purpose of the exercise was not to just bring two countries closer together according to some institutional vision and scope, but also to bring the people of our ethnic origin closer together. And while we probably succeeded in some fashion with the first goal, we also had limited success with the secondary goal, which was not officially stated as a goal from the beginning. Probably because the original purpose was not as fully recognised as was hoped for, the secondary goal is used to explain any shortcomings.
Officials also had problems that ordinary people usually do not hear about or would even think of. For the consulate the issue of security was a very big one. Since last year, more than ever the security at public events, such as the Kinder Fest for the German School, is a major concern. Canada appears not quite prepared for such high demands, but rallied to our cause and we were well protected, as we heard from Dr. Hochschild himself.
Anyway, this is what we have been able to extrapolate from your reactions and comments, added on to our own observations.
In this issue you will find some of the events as they unfolded here and in Kitchener. We did not attend all events; we were not even invited to all. But it certainly would have been a full time job to do so. Thinking that we already know who we are, and that the 5 weeks were staged for the benefit of Canadians of all walks, not just specifically German expatriates, we did not feel it necessary to overextend ourselves, especially since the community support was lacking. We hope that you enjoyed some of the events yourself, as it was very vital for any of us to show up there. Canada is still not quite used to such a big German offering. Perhaps it will show up for the next Fest in really big numbers.
Surely there was something to be learned from this effort and improvements can be made, the number of participants can grow, and the media, which functions a bit differently in our climes as the big media in Germany or elsewhere, will be met with the consideration it deserves.
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
Comments to: editor@echoworld.com
