The Right Honourable PAUL MARTIN speaks about the importance of understanding and interacting with people from different cultures, particularly Africans, in order to build a strong Canada. He encourages media like AfriCanadaTv to reach out to both young African – Canadians and Canadians from other countries in order to bridge the gap between cultures and create a two-way street of understanding.
Creating Interaction Between Canadians and Africans
During a conversation with the Honourable Prime Minister Paul Martin, we asked him this question:
A company like AfriCanadatv, it’s a young and growing television in North America and one of the major mandates is to create this real interaction between Canadians and Africans in order to realize that we all have the same aspirations, the same dreams and the same desires and other than just, you know, them and us. So how can you advise growing media organizations like ours?
First of all, what is Canada? Canada is a country that is made up of people who comes from around the world. There is a very large African-Canadian population who are as Canadian as anybody who came from Europe, who came from Asia, or whoever they came from. This is the great strength of Canada.
What you’re talking about is important for young African – Canadians but it’s incredibly important for Canada. Our ability to understand the world is so important for a country of 33 million people. Our ability to be able to understand that people of one culture have a different perspective than people of another culture. One is not better than the other, they just happen to be different. But the ability to be able to reach out and do that is Canada’s great strength.
We are doing very well today as a country. We want to continue to do that and the only way in which that’s going to happen is if we really are able to bring people here from around the world and for us to reach out to them.
And I think that what AfriCanadaTv, what you’re in the process of doing, speaking to young Africans is very important. But I think you should be talking not just to young African – Canadians but you should be talking to Canadians from wherever they happen to be from and they should be watching you and they should try to understand this.
You know, today, if I had spoken to somebody 25 years ago and I’d said, you’ve got to know, you have to know what’s going on in Asia. You have to know what’s going on in Africa, they would have looked at me and they would have said, well I don’t know, why do I have to know that? All I really have to know is about the United States. Today they understand that.
Well, I’m saying to Canadians today, you better understand Africa. Africa is going to be 2 billion people. These are tremendously dynamic people and we’re very lucky that many of them live in this country. For heaven’s sake, make sure you understand what they’re thinking about and let them influence you. Let it be a two-way street.
By William Muyuku
