I notice a lot of interest in this blog from Canada. So I am re-posting one of my first ever blogs, on Canadian peace keeping:
OK I confess: I have a soft spot for Canada and Canadians: I love Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver! But they are also the world’s quiet ‘get on with it without much fuss’ peacekeepers: since 1948 they have sent over 125,000 Canadians overseas on peace keeping missions in the Golan Heights, East Timor, Kosovo, Cyprus, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and many other places. I have see plenty of war memorials, but only one to peace keepers: in Ottawa:
Peace keeping does not come free: over 2468 UN and other peace keepers from 100 countries have been killed on duty in the same period. So this Memorial Day in the USA, let us give some thought to all peace keepers, especially Canadians, my neighbors 50 miles east of here. And as you will see on this blog, trying to mediate in conflict can be costly: you may even have both sides turn on you. And if I am to push the envelope a bit in helping improve your conflict handling, I may at some stage cut across some of your beliefs. I apologize in advance: learning, but no offence/offense, intended!
