It has become my Christmas custom to send a care package to my brother and his family in the United States. Poor disadvantaged souls that they are, if it weren’t for me they wouldn’t have access to Mackintosh toffee, Smarties or Quebec Maple Syrup. Truth be told, the most fought over gift is usually the sturdy canvas Saskatoon Coop bag I wrap them all in. Various family members compete to see who will walk down the streets of Richmond, Philadelphia or Washington with this handsome carryall.
It is also my custom to enclose a jar of Saskatoon Berry Jam in Kris Kringle’s sack. I have yet to find anyone who could resist that sweet/tart delight. This year however, I hesitated to do so. This year the US Food & Drug Administration issued new rules preventing the importing of commercially produced jams, jellies and sweets without a special permit. The Post Office won’t accept such parcels without evidence of the permit having been secured.
How to respond to such nonsense? Shall we stand on our high horses (always at the ready!) and denounce the surreptitious protectionism of such a move. Or is there a nationalist shelf higher up the wall from which we can castigate the barbarians who suggest that anything ‘foreign’ is inferior.
This policy is so absurd, it leads me to a different response. Many people have written about how America was traumatized by the events we have come to know as 9/11. But the suicide aero-bombings of Washington and New York were only the end of a string of shocks to America’s self-confidence, self-image and sense of security. In 1995, it was born and bred American citizens who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City. In 1999 it was born and bred American teenagers who slaughtered the innocents in a high school in Columbine, Colorado. All of these events together have disturbed the quintessentially modern (and North American) expectation that bad things don’t happen to good people.
One response is to conclude that insufficient precautions have been taken. So, let’s now be suspicious of everybody and everything – even Saskatoon Berry jam. Another response is to root out evil at its source, especially if its source can be located in another country. My response is to lament the wasted efforts and also the lack of leadership. Most Americans of my acquaintance are appalled at the direction their Government has taken them and can’t wait to vote for Jed Bartlett.
My other reaction is to redouble my efforts to build international bridges of mutual respect and understanding. I don’t believe evil can be eradicated. I do believe it can be contained. Evil thrives in the darkness. Its containers are built in the broad light of day.
Saskatoon Berry jam is as much a cultural product as a food product – just like the Coop bag. Its export is one of the planks on that international bridge of understanding. The Post Office and the FDA were obstacles but they were not insurmountable. My brother visited me in December and took the presents back in his car. On Christmas morning he went ‘out’ and ‘about’ with a distinctly Canadian flavour in his American home
First Published in January 2004
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