Hi,

Greetings to all my friends, and sorry to be out the radar screen for some time. This is because I am facing the normal problems awaiting all new immigrants and thus being very occupied trying to solve them. Things are moving forward however. I dread the coming winter though and am puzzled at the kind of clothing one aught to start shopping for to suit the winter of Northern Ontario. Any suggestions?

Hope to find time for some more important blogging soon.

Alaa

CANADA DAY

Hi,

I consider it a good omen that my arrival to Canada coincided just before "Canada Day", the birthday of this country; because for me and my family it is also a kind of rebirth into a new life and a new country. Now, the country of your birth is an accident that is not of your choosing; but a country that you have chosen of your own free will and that has accepted you for citizenship for your own worth, when it had no obligation whatsoever towards you, and I have not come in as a refugee nor am I a wealthy man; such a country is perhaps more deserving of allegiance. But of course, I have been long enough in this world to realise that nowhere is everything perfect, nor all people are the same. I can expect disappointments and difficulties but that changes nothing. The worst bigot that I may expect to encounter here cannot be considered but a mild case of bad temper compared to the throat slitting eye gorging hate filled types that have come to infest our poor Mesopotamia and the whole region around it. What do I have in common with these latter types? They are more foreign and repugnant to me than any monsters descended from outer space perhaps.

As I am watching the firework displays I can feel the stirring of the first feelings of belonging and affection for the new home. I pray to God who has brought me here to help me settle and succeed to become a good citizen of this land. Home is where you are made to feel at home. So on this day I want to extend my congratulations to all Canadians and above all to say:

“Thank you Canada”