Loricat: Many of the problems in the Middle East stem from outside influences trying to 'create a nation' -- which was, essentially, just more colonialism.

I agree completely, and I think Fromkin's narrative supports this. What outside influences are attempting to create when nation-building are circumstances friendly to their interests: internal agents who will comply to their external demands, and borders to protect this compliance from unfriendly external forces. The internal agents and national borders have very little to do with the actual interests of the vast majority of the population living within them...in the same way that the few external forces directing the nation building process share very few interests with the vast majority of population of their own nation.

The interests of the colonized and colonizers can occasionally mesh, in much the same way that a group of terrorists hijacking an airplane share with the passengers and crew an interest in keeping the plane in flight...unless they decide to crash it.... ... .. .

Loricat: But what about Canada? We're a nation, created out of what was once (not too long ago) a colony.

I suspect the same logic applied. If you asked the indigenous populations, labor forces, etc. of that colonial/independence period, you'll find more than a few voices who did not want and fought against French/British Imperial forces making borders, imposing laws, forcing languages, taking land and natural resources. Here's an interesting recent concern raised by indigenous folk in Canada

Quote:

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CANADA: Indigenous organizations welcome declaration on indigenous rights Express deep disappointment with Government's interference

OTTAWA -- Indigenous peoples and human rights organizations in Canada are welcoming the historic decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council to back the adoption of the draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, these organizations also expressed their deep frustration and disappointment with the Canadian government`s efforts to stall this much-needed and long overdue human rights instrument. Canada called the vote as a pre-emptive move against the Declaration`s passage, but in the end Canada was one of only two countries to vote against the Declaration.

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Of course, the way in which the governments in Canada and the USA have dealt with the Native populations has been/is problematic, to say the least.

One of the things I'm hoping to understand over the course of reading this book (and others), and through discussion, is what elements are involved in the question: Why is it that one country can have their different cultural groups living relatively peacefully together (with problems, naturally), while in others, there is active persecution? The Kurds in Turkey being only one example.

Is it geography, timing, outside influence....?

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat's Book Nook
Celebrating the Absurd