How does "homeland" sound applied to Canada?

[JohnyCanuck]

From the first time I heard the word "homeland" (as in homeland security etc.) being used in the US media and by US political figures and government spokespeople, I thought to myself that it had a somewhat Orwellian/totalitarian type ring to it and it left me feeling distinctly uncomfortable.

I have been watching the Canadian media wondering if or when the suckup, eager-beaver Canadian media types would pick up on the trend and start applying "homeland" to Canada. I noticed one instance a year or so ago on the CBC news and I immediatley emailed them and told them to cut that shit out. I was one Canadian that didn't appreciate hearing CBC picking up and applying Dubya's and the neo-cons' brainwashing terms to the Canadian situation. Thankfully, there have been no cases since then that I have heard where CBC used that word in a Canadian context.

Well it happened a few nights ago, but this time by news anouncer Tom Clark on the CTV TV evening news. Here's what I emailed to the CTV.

Please forward this to Tom Clark

Dear Tom,

Last night in your introductory remarks to the news you asked, "how far Canadians were willing to go to protect the 'homeland.'"

That's when I flipped the channel and stopped watching. It's bad enough to hear the bought and paid for, gutless coroporate media in the US constantly using the Bush administration's psy-op/propaganda/brainwashing term "homeland" in reference to things related to domestic US affairs, and I resent having it now applied to Canada by Canadian media figures who should know better.

From the minute I first heard the US media bandying about the Orwellian sounding term "Homeland Security" it set my nerves on edge and everything I have learned since about the sleazy liars in the Bush administration tells me I was right to be concerned about their intentions and their methods.

If you think I am exagerating the importance of this, I suggest you read the article "Brainwashing America," by Dr. Norman Livergood, a former Department Head at the US Army War College who actually studied and wrote about brainwashing techniques while he was at the College. See:
http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm

Please refrain from using this psy-op sounding term in the future when referring to Canada or Canadian issues. The Bush administration under the influence of the rabidly pro-Zionists, empire building, neo-con PNACers has successfully engaged in a propaganda/brainwashing war to subvert the democratic process in the USA (thanks to the co-opted US media). I find it disturbing that now our own Canadian media is assiting, intentionally or not, in spreading the memes of the Bush neocons' propaganda agenda.

Kind Regards and best wishes
xxxxx

[The Crazy Canadian]

1. I agree with you 100%.

I don't like the term "homeland" at all. I found it a bit creepy when the Americans started using it.

[LizMoonstar]

2. hmmm.

Well, I'm not a Canadian, but I kind of like the idea that other countries would use the term, if only to remind neocons that America isn't the only country out there!

Besides, there is a longstanding pre-Orwell (pre-Nazism as well) tradition of using the term. It's just unfortunate that our stupids in gov't have decided to take all the nasty meanings and not the good ones to apply.

[glarius]

3. To me "homeland" is reminiscent of the"fatherland" used by Nazi Germany!

From the first time I heard them referring to the "homeland", my mind went to that conotation.

[Benhurst]

4. And you were absolutely right. Please, Canadians, don't use

"homeland." I hope to see the day when the Bush Crime Family is in jail and "homeland" is no longer used here.

[Canuckistanian]

7. "Heimat" has very emotional connotations in Germany

The Nazis just tapped into that sentiment, much as the Shrub administration has done with religion and troop worship.

[tocqueville]

5. the word homeland is not really "fatherland"

"the land of one's birth, residence, or citizenship" according to Merriam-Webster

so you don't have to be born somewhere with ancestors in several generations to have a "homeland"

I French we use the the word "patrie" (an equivalent of "fatherland" but even mère-patrie ("motherland"). It has given words like patriot, patriotic in English, the same words are found in French. But even if there is an etymological "fatherland" in patrie, it means today "homeland" (c'est ta nouvelle patrie - it's your new homeland, can be said to an immigrant).

The word is is absolutively positive and emotional in French. One of the most famous appeals of the French Revolution when threatened by monarchies (the Valmy Battle where French "ragheads" armed with pitchforks stopped professional armies) was conducted under "la Patrie en Danger" (the homeland is in danger).

If planes had hit France instead of America in september 2001, people had been rallying here under the same appeals (The Republic in Danger is another one) and absolutely not under "God save France"...

so there is nothing wrong with the word in itself, it's only wrong with the forces that corrupt it. The same with "freedom".

Pétain was using "la patrie" a lot. He remains a traitor. The word has survived him.

It's possible that the word homeland sounds "different" now in the US, but it's only because Bush pronounces it.

[LizMoonstar]

6. thank you --

i have a degree in french literature and language, and this is what i was thinking of, but didn't want to talk about the revolution without details.

[achtung_circus]

8. In a word, SHIT. nt