Here I am, sitting at my computer after a rather eventful night. My name is Christina Abdul-Hamid, and I'm a woman with a story to share with you. I was born in the City of Hasbaya in the Republic of Lebanon, but raised in the City of Ottawa, Province of Ontario. My parents, Phillip Abdul-Hamid and Annabelle Mansur moved to the Confederation of Canada in the mid-1980s, fleeing the Lebanese Civil War. This protracted conflict they fled from occurred between Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Muslims and almost obliterated this beautiful country in which I was born. Of course, my folks left the country in 1987, a year after I was born. Some people who know me say that I am more Canadian than Lebanese. Um, can't I be both?
I work for the Ontario Provincial Police as a Constable. The O.P.P. has come under fire from the Government of liberal Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty for their lack of racial and gender diversity. Ninety nine percent of all police officers in the Ontario Provincial Police were Caucasian males up until recently. They started hiring more women and more men from non-Caucasian backgrounds. These changes have affected the O.P.P. a lot and not everybody is happy about that. As a Lebanese Canadian woman, I am forever walking between worlds. I stand five feet eleven inches tall, and I'm not exactly skinny. In high school, I used to wrestle on the guys team. I amassed twenty four victories and six losses during my senior year on the wrestling team. Mind you, I was in the 210-pound weight class. That was almost a decade ago. I've put on a few pounds since then. That's okay, because I am damn proud of my body. The majority of women living in today's world aren't skinny women. Curvy is becoming the new normal. If the manufacturers listened to real women instead of gay guys who know nothing about us, they'd realize that curves are definitely in.
Anyhow, I haven't been on the Ontario Provincial Police force too long. I worked for the Ottawa Police Service for two years before getting hired by the Ontario Provincial Police. Before that, I studied in the police foundations program at Algonquin College. I spent three years earning a Bachelor's degree in Criminology from Carleton University before I realized that a police foundations diploma would impress those bozos in the police force far more than a Carleton University degree, which would intimidate and alienate them. That's a sad truth about life in Canada. University is valued more than college, but lately, it's the college graduates who have been getting the good jobs while the university graduates can't find work in their fields after graduation. A sad case of being overqualified and unemployable. I found myself in that trap and fought my way out of it. If that surprises you, welcome to Canada. Enjoy your stay.
People mistake me for so many things when they meet me. For starters, because I'm a tall chubby chick in a police uniform, people are surprised that I am actually friendly. Of course I'm friendly and easygoing. I can outshoot most of the guys on the police force and I am VERY strong physically. Oh, yeah. I can bench-press three hundred and ten pounds. I'm talking about dead lifting here. Just picking up the weights and lifting them right above my head. Oh, yeah. I'm a chick and I can do that. I used to play rugby at Carleton University and I played on the women's soccer team at Algonquin College during my time there. What can I say? I love contact sports. I don't follow hockey. I love football, though. I spent one semester in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, and fell in love with the New England Patriots football team. Football is definitely my favorite sport. I support the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. I wish the Canadian Football League would expand and be taken as seriously as the National Football League but Canadians love football about as much as Americans love soccer. It is just not going to happen.
For some reason, a lot of people think that I'm Hispanic when they meet me. Also, some of the Arabs I encounter shoot me dirty looks when they see a silver crucifix hanging around my neck. I always display it. I am an Arab woman, a police officer and a Christian. The Lord Jesus Christ is my savior. I am a proud Lebanese Christian woman. That's my faith and I'm not like those foolish Western women willing to change their faith because they believe the seductive lies told to them by Muslim men who want to control them. My family and I have lost relatives to attacks by the Muslims during the Lebanese Civil War. My uncle Louis Abdul-Hamid was leading a Christian militia in defense of Christian neighborhoods in southwestern Beirut when he got shot down by Hezbollah. It galls me that Lebanese Muslims sided with the Syrians against Lebanese Christians when these absolutely ruthless, dirty dogs came to the Republic of Lebanon. In hindsight, that really shouldn't surprise me. Muslims will side with other Muslims against their own countrymen because they have no loyalty to country or flag, only religion. The sooner Western society realizes that about them, the better off we'll be.