07.03.08 kulturnatib

Pinoy on Canada Day

Tuesday, this week, was the big national holiday here. Here is Canada, but it is also, more immediately, Quebec, which celebrated its own national day, known as Fête du Quebec, also on Tuesday, last week.

If that sounds confusing, it is because, among other things, Canada doesn't have an Independence Day like we do. In fact, it was only in 1982 that the last vestiges of political control by Great Britain ended, though, as I learned only of late, that the Head of State of Canada is still Queen Elizabeth II. This is mostly titular however.

Now the thing with Quebec is a different matter about which I am still learning. Many of these lessons are not immediately obvious although if one were observant enough it is there for all to see. Like federal government buildings or those used by the federal government in this side of the river, away from the complexes on the Ottawa side always hang giant Canada flags a week ahead of Canada Day.

This, I was told, was a silent but not too subtle reminder to Quebec which, on the day the giant Canada flags hang, becomes a sea of blue, the color of the Quebec flag, that Canada or the Anglophones rule.

Tuesday was such a beautiful day to be spent on politics. Especially one that I am not only unfamiliar with beyond its resonances with the Tagalog-Bisaya divide but, more importantly, I have nothing to do with directly not being a citizen of this country.

So, on beautiful Canada Day, this Tuesday, I decided to be Pinoy and pay homage to the one thing that unites all Filipinos and commands their allegiance more than any occupant of Malacanang does; basketball.

Having been convinced not to wait to find one in a garage sale as had I originally intended and to buy a brand new one instead. I bought it and decided that Canada Day was the best time to break the ball in and to take advantage of the free facilities in the park just outside our apartment.

At first, it was just my partner and myself. We were just shooting ball and flexing muscles that had been underutilized throughout the winter and, more recently, with the forced domesticity brought on by a newborn. After a while we were joined by another couple, friends, who were on their way to the swimming pool next door to the basketball and tennis courts.

A friendly two-a-side soon ensued. The most that can be said of that game that naturally petered out brought on by the fatal combination of heat and thirst and compounded by the fact that none of us were particularly skilled at basketball was that, it was so much fun.

It also reminded me of what I now realize to be an abiding mystery. Tiago, half Brazilian, behaved a lot like many Pinoys, especially in one particularly peculiar respect. He had no compunction playing barefoot. But. the broiling hot asphalt court soon made him seek refuge in his slippers.

This is where the mystery came back to me. Many Pinoys play basketball barefoot or with their slippers but, in most cases -- and here is where Tiago betrayed his not being Pinoy -- only with one slipper. Why? Has somebody else noticed this? How is this behavior explained?

Back home, with the nagging question pushed to the back burner by the more immediate concerns of preparing dinner, another thing reminded me of being Pinoy on Canada Day. Walking back to the kitchen, I suddenly thought I heard something familiar. It can't be, I thought. I had not touched the dial. It was playing Astrid Gilberto when I left the kitchen barely two minutes before.

But yes, it was familiar indeed. There was no mistaking it. It was a Tagalog program. How it was switched to this program was less important than trying to find out what the program was about, what was the radio station and what was its call number as the radio's digital display was going nuts scanning up and down the frequency scale.

As far as I could catch it -- for the signal disappeared mysteriously as it had appeared -- the radio hostess was greeting a bunch of people who were celebrating their birthdays. So Pinoy, right? Yet, no greetings for Canada Day.

These two mysteries collided with each other as I enjoyed the fireworks display later that night. It wasn't that much different from the fireworks we've been having in Cebu lately except maybe in scale and duration. Its cost, too, no different. In both currencies, they spell expensive.