8.24.06 kulturnatib

Diverse city

Outside the window is a balloon. It is anchored atop the bank directly across the street. It is the kind that we are getting more familiar with as such promotional gimmicks or materials become more common in our native cityscape.

This balloon is most appropriate for the event that it is promoting. On one side it says Ville de Gatineau. On the other, Festival de Mongolfieres de Gatineau.

Montgolfieres are hot air balloons originally developed by the Mongolfiere brothers in 1783 in France. During the festival that celebrates this pioneering invention, the skies above Gatineau will be dotted with these colorful, stately, large and ponderous aircrafts.

But, last weekend, this balloon was a solitary presence in our patch of sky of Gatineau. It was also the sole provider of color against a gray sky pregnant with rain.

In another part of the city, however, was another festival. Amidst the cold wind and the off and on rains was a determined group celebrating another human invention; definitely earthbound but fueled no less by the lofty dreams of multiculturalism and diversity worn in the riot of colors of national flags, costumes, arts, crafts and solidarity and development organizations.

Organized by the city of Gatineau the Journee Gatinoise de la Celebration de la Diversity Culturelle is, I was made to understand, a recent -- only on its second year -- initiative of the city and various immigrant, solidarity and development organizations to celebrate the contributions of immigrants towards multiculturalism, diversity and a better understanding of the wider mostly third world outside the city gates.

When we arrived at the L'école Secondaire Mont-Bleu where the festival was held, the football tournament with two simultaneous games in adjacent fields was in progress. On the storm wire fence of one field hung the flags of the participating immigrant country teams.

Not surprisingly, of the Asian groups, two of the Asian football powerhouses were represented -- Japan and South Korea. The rest were flags of countries that were also mostly represented in the recently concluded World Cup in Germany.

Not surprisingly, too, was the smattering of languages spoken and sung that continues to convince me that global English is a chimera and that world music is infinitely more interesting than the top 40, payola-fueled music that is the listening diet served up by our local radio.

While the games were on-going, the other parts of the celebration were setting-up. We were there for a local NGO, the Centre sur la Diversite et Pratiques Solidaires or Cedisol with some fair trade and organic chocolates for sale. This humble offering shared the table with some very fine glass costume jewelry crafted by an Argentinian couple, of whom, Amanda is board member of Cedisol.

Because of the rains, some of the activities, such as the kiosks, had to be pulled into the covered tents. So that Cedisol, together with some other solidarity and immigrant service organizations had to share the space that was later also the performance stage for the folk dances and other cultural performances.

As this stage was being set up, I took the opportunity to make myself useful. I offered to help with the sound equipment. I introduced myself to Tito Medina who was hauling in speakers, monitors, mixers, CD players, etc.

In between uncoiling cable, positioning speakers, connecting wires and plugging-in connectors, we talked. I learned that the he was a signer-songwriter, the sound equipment was part of his sound studio recording business and he is Guatemalan, an exile who was forced to immigrate as a political refugee three years ago and whose elder brother, a writer, was kidnapped and is among the thousands of Guatemalan desaperecidos (disappeared).

Soon after the sound equipment were in place, the festival officially started at the main tent with a Chinese dragon dance. The mayor followed with a welcome speech praising this initiative.

As the smallest of the four main cities of Quebec Province, but the one closest to the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Gatineau has a stake in becoming the banner waver for multiculturalism and diversity in a country that continues to view Quebec's Francophilia as excessive if not threatening to national unity.

The folk dances followed. In that batch were Irish, Egyptian, Algerian and Serbian dancers. Another batch was set to perform after an hour's break.

Unfortunately, we could not stay on for that. It had started to rain again. We had no car. The bus stop was maybe half a kilometer away. We had a small umbrella. But somebody offered us a ride.

In the car, as a smattering of French, English and Spanish bounced about, I thought: there is the strength of a country, being able to welcome difference, diversity, to celebrate it, encourage it and even to be a haven for those whose difference are considered crimes in their own countries. This is my kind of globalization.