The Cellist of Sarajevo - CanLit Reservations

The Cellist of Sarajevo

CanLit Reservations: Although I am a passionate reader and promoter of CanLit, have read almost nothing but for over forty years, for some probably ignoble reasons I have previously avoided this novel, Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo. For (1) reason, because Vancouver Island artists Elizabeth Wellburn and Deryk Houston had earlier collaborated with the cellist Vedran Smailovic to create the illustrated children's book Echoes from the Square (Rubicon, 2002). A version is available on You Tube. (2) For another reason, I always suspect ulterior motives (a quest for $$$ and international sales) behind "Canadian" novels set elsewhere, with not even one Canadian character. I hold with Seamus Heaney that good literature reveals the self to the self, restores the culture to itself. (Of course, I'm paraphrasing abducting expanding what he said about poetry in "Feeling into Words".) Who will write about us, reveal us and our culture, if not us? We need to do this. (3) And finally, because looking outside ourselves for examples of human rights abuses could imply a "holier than thou" attitude, a blindness to our own failures. I know, we have a shared humanity, and that it is often easier to recognize problems in others before we see them in ourselves. I said my hesitations are ungenerous. 

The Cellist of Sarajevo - A Psychological Landscape

The Cellist of Sarajevo

A Psychological Landscape: With these reservations in mind, I did enjoy Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo. I felt transported to that time and place where Canadian soldiers I know served. I could imagine the stresses of a population under siege attempting to survive while snipers above them try to foil their efforts. The psychological landscape feels real. Daily routines. Rituals. Memory. Markets and black markets. Conscription into the armed conflict.

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Identification With Arrow

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Identification With Arrow: The character with whom I most identify is Arrow because she is female and because I have also trained at target shooting, on handgun, shotgun, and AR-15 rifle. She has a skill and she is conscripted to assist "the defenders" of the city. As all trained marksmen know, being prepared to shoot at a human being is a big step. The protocol is drilled into you. The appropriate use of force. You may kill in order to prevent a death. Shoot a hostage-taker with a knife or a gun to the head of an innocent person. That's the easy one. You may kill a fleeing felon, "armed and dangerous," on the belief that fleeing authority makes him desperate and therefore more at risk of harming others to aid in his escape. You never shoot simply to wound or disarm, although this training is beginning to be questioned. In some cases, knowledge of the perpetrator may influence your assessment of the risk and thus your decision about whether or not to use lethal force. Snipers are not the negotiators. In some cases, someone of high rank will give the order to fire. Even then, the sniper is still responsible for the decision. Just like in a war, being ordered to commit an illegal act does not relieve the shooter of responsibility. So Arrow is comfortable with the first assignment, to counter-snipe the gunmen in the hills. However, she draws her own line. She refuses to shoot a civilian. She refuses to follow an order which she considers to be illegal or immoral. She knows the consequences. Symbolically, she puts her weapon down, as if to say Here I Stand, and she waits.

Have I ever experienced a similar sudden awakening or realization? Nothing quite so dramatic. I cannot say I have ever been given an illegal order. I have left jobs when I could no longer respect those who were giving the orders. Or when I could not accept existing policy such as Smoking Permitted in my Classroom or forced Christian prayer. 

The Cellist of Sarajevo - The Force of the Music

The Cellist of Sarajevo

The Force of the Music: I think it is the cellist's protest which has the power, more than the music itself. He protests by refusing to cower. By honouring the dead. Perhaps he is experiencing post-traumatic stress himself. By making a statement, he is also making himself a target. However, like the '60s slogan War Is Over If You Want It, I think it is naive to believe that if everyone in the city simply refuses to fight, that would end the siege. That's how bullies win. The people of the city did not start the conflict nor can they end it.

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Who Are These People?

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Who Are These People?: I like the point that the combating groups are not named, other than sniper and counter-sniper, siezer and defender, them and us. Who they really are/were is not the point. The point is how citizens cope within the middle of armed conflict. However, I think the more important theme is how to prevent such conflicts before they become this serious. Although it is probably not something the writer was interested in nor trying to do. I believe it is these causes of conflict which are part of our shared humanity that we are still struggling to learn to address. How to respect those who are different from ourselves. How to live in shared territory. The responsibilities of governments and of international organizations. The importance of finding and using non-violent means of pressuring governments to respect human rights. Ways to control the sale of arms and munitions. Ways to prevent criminals and criminal organizations from taking over countries.

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Sarajevo, Canada

The Cellist of Sarajevo 

Sarajevo, Canada. Could this happen here? The destruction of the city made me think more of what Vancouver would look like after an earthquake. However, unfortunately, I do believe that in Canada, civil war could also happen. The issues in Bosnia included the rights of minorities within a federation, control of territory, and sectarianism based on racism. I don't think combat will happen in Canada if Quebec decides to secede. However, I do think it may happen if we do not wake up and come to terms with the injustice and mistreatment of our First Nations, treatment which does not comply with either the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights nor with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. See my: http://www.ImagineCanada2017.blogspot.ca/

As a student of history, I fear the use of army and police forces against people speaking up for First Nations rights. We have already witnessed such armed conflict against our fellow citizens, the Kenesatake Mohawk at Oka, Quebec, at Gustafsen Lake, BC, the Six Nations of the Grand River at Caledonia, Ontario, the Stoney Point Ojibway at Ipperwash, Ontario, and the Elsipogtog Mi'kmaq at Rexton, New Brunswick, to list a few. People pretend that it's about land, or law and order, but it's really about human rights, indigenous rights, treaty rights, and about hiding behind numbers, that old majority rule of outdated democracy, as an excuse to abuse the rights of others. And it's about the racism rampant in our nation even today which allows people to tolerate injustice just like the people of Sarajevo learned to live with the snipers in the hills. 

Human Writes Activist

Human Writes Activist

Three Day Road - Human Rights In Canada

Three Day Road - Human Rights In Canada

Amnesty International chose Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road for its first book club discussion.

The unjust treatment, the failure to honour, our First Nations, is, I believe the most important issue in Canada today. It distresses me to see prominent First Nations spokespeople, like Elijah in the novel, frantically proclaiming, attempting to convince others that "I am / we are worthy" when the real issue, the cause of all the pain and suffering, lies within us, the "other," those of us whose eyes are blinded by racism. Racism denigrates indigenous cultures, allows treaty rights to be defied and denied, allowed children to be abducted and indoctrinated, allows women to be desecrated, communities to be marginalized, colonization to continue. Racism assumes that all MUST assimilate, and causes the Elijah's to internalize a sense of inferiority and shame and anger. Racism is the issue, and racism is what has to be addressed before any change, any true reconciliation will be possible.

What can I do about it? I write. All I can do is write. I wrote about what I know and how I know it. My Dancing With Ghosts: A Cross-Cultural Education is available through the Canadian Museum For Human Rights website http://share.humanrightsmuseum.ca/writing/dancing-with-ghosts-a-cross-cultural-education/ and also on my own blog http://www.dancingwithghostsaneducation.blogspot.ca/ along with my other attempts to enlighten--Imagine Canada 2017 http://www.imaginecanada2017.blogspot.ca/ and We Are All Accomplices http://weareallaccomplices.blogspot.ca/2013/03/good-things-about-nanaimo-letter-to.html  I am still working on trying to place my The Truth About Reconciliation.

Artists like Joseph Boyden and Wab Kinew help us see First Nations from a different, more rounded perspective. But does no one else fear "preaching to the choir"? Only those people who have already been converted, who are already concerned about human rights, and righting wrongs, are likely to hear. How best can we expose, let alone address, the underlying causes of our dysfunctional relationship with First Nations in Canada?