Taking Sides

As the war in the region known as The Middle East continues, it looks like some countries are beginning to take sides. If that's the case,  perhaps we need some new thinking at our collective leadership. [In fact, that's what this column/blog is consistently about: new leadership offering an alternative POV.]
 
It's a dangerous time in the region. We've got Iran and Syria sympathizing with Hezbollah and we have the United States and Canada sympathizing with Israel. But who's going to side with peace? The body count of innocent victims rises daily and nobody speaks for them. The United States once again offers its Secretary of State as a broker in some mock peace-talks, but they are decidedly biased in favour of Israel. You don't have to look to far to see who's supplying weapons to that country and it isn't Russia or China. People in the region have known this for years.

If, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that Israel has been planning this war for years, then that means the US Pentagon was in there helping out in the interests of McDonnell Douglas and Aerospace Technologies. But still we never question the ineffectiveness of the United States whose shaky track record in peace negotiations has generally been a failure.  

If Canada chooses one side over the other, then we're part of the problem, not the solution. Why can't Canadians use our expertise in the middle ground and choose peace? This is the real question for the Prime Minister and one that he must heed. Remember Pearson in the Suez? He brokered a deal that won him a Nobel Peace Prize and opened up the region to a huge economic gain.
 
I was rather disappointed to learn that 8,000 people attended a pro-Israel rally in Toronto this past week that raised $6 million to support the war. Pull out your calculator and it adds up to $750 per person. I’m afraid their money and loyalty is misplaced.
 
Clearly, by taking sides the opportunity for peace is lost. [Why do you think Rice & Co. failed on Wednesday?] The middle ground, what's left of it, is a much more progressive step and cheering Stephen Harper for taking sides is completely inappropriate. I would hope that geographic distance would provide us with a better view of the world; the big picture, as it were. By taking sides in this conflict, that point-of-view is considerably diminished.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Crazy 8 Summit

Every summer our family used to get together for the traditional family picnic in the park. Among the many activities the adults planned for the kids and for themselves were games. The kids would amuse themselves with a lot of physical challenges, while the adults settled in for a game or two of Cribbage or Crazy Eights.
 
The object of the card game, Crazy Eights, is to get rid of all your cards to a discard pile. The first person to do so wins the hand. Points are added to every player who's still holding cards and the player with the fewest points wins the game.
 
With the G8 Summit this past week, I couldn't help but think of it much like the summer pastime. It was a meeting of eight leaders trying to discard their responsibilities into a pile. I'm thinking in purely political terms as each country shrugged off its responsibilities in the volatile region known as The Middle East.  No mention of Africa on the agenda. No open talks about peak oil but plenty of rhetoric regarding Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Perhaps the view from St. Petersburg was too ideal.
 
The key to the summit was the guest list: leaders from Mexico, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. All of these nations have vital interests in the future of Oil, the biggest trading commodity among them. China complained about the rising prices, while Russia signed a deal to pump Natural Gas from Kazakhstan's giant Karachaganak gas field. And they all agreed, "on the 'urgency' of protecting the world's energy infrastructure from terrorist attacks." And thereby lies the current state of military activities around the world and specifically in the oil rich region the United States currently occupies like Iraq. [Wars are territorial, after all]
 
The G8 or Crazy 8, as I like to call them, also agreed not to expand membership. This exclusive club makes the strict rules of the game even at the exclusion of China, India and Brazil, two of the biggest oil consumers in the world and one small producer. Clearly, they were only interested in maintaining the status quo and to politically discard these nations to the pile. As usual, nobody wanted to be left holding cards at the end of the summit.
 
I didn't know Crazy Eights was such a high stakes game.
 
That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

If you’ve seen a newspaper or TV or Radio Newscast in the past few days, the headlines have been brutal. All the “carnage” in the world, as stated by the Toronto Sun recently, is enough to throw your hands up in frustration. We’ve got aggressive moves by the Israeli army into Lebanon and Gaza, Hezbollah firing rockets into train stations; more fighting in Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile the North Koreans are trying to prove a military point with missile testing. Since none of these moves is changing anything except the body count and the cost of doing business in these respective regions, when is it all going to end?

Plato once said, “the price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”. So it seems to me that we, the people, have a choice. We can either go on summer vacation or start demanding more from our elected officials. Are we going to stand up and say enough already? Are we going to kick the stupid people out of office and get on with a more progressive, peaceful and equitable society with better relations around the world?

How frustrating it must be for the Mexicans who came out in droves to vote for their progressive candidate, only to be left off the voters list. Note the struggle by Palestinians living on the border with Lebanon, waking up to repeated bombing, the likes of which they haven’t heard in years. Meanwhile, in the exotic region known as Kashmir, the fighting heats up faster than the thermometer in a war that is a virtual stalemate.

Maybe it’s the heat and the humidity that causes all of us to lose the power of the rational mind. I think it was Pierre Trudeau who felt that we needed "reason over passion," three words that sound great together but lead to an occasional hiccup when looking at the politics of the world in the 21st Century.

Perhaps I need a summer vacation.

Maybe everybody does.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Missile Envy

North Korea wants to play in the nuclear sandbox of the world with its own brand of missiles. And so this past week they "tested" them. Alas, that has made the regular kids a bit "testy". According to Condeleeza Rice, [the] "missile tests were a provocation that has raised concerns around the world." [I hate it when the US government speaks for the rest of us] Well, what exactly are we concerned about? The fact that North Korea is testing? or that the United States is trying to control the rules of play? I think it's more the latter than the former.
 
When it comes to the position of the United States, the world's Imperial power, they are steadfastly against any country playing with missiles, or in the case of Iran, nuclear technology. [Particularly if Spar Aerospace or Boeing doesn't get a piece of the action] It's America reminding the "world" who's boss. As George Bush has said, "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" and that message has been the foundation of the US foreign policy for the past 5 years. The Bush administration soiled relations with North Korea back in 2000 after Clinton left office; [just ask Madeline Albright.] The State Department was ambivalent to North Korea under Colin Powell, and now, under Rice, they're grandstanding at this missile testing.
 
If North Korea is looking for a fight in the playground at recess, they better watch out for the school monitor, namely the Pentagon. They have more weapons of mass destruction at their disposal than the Koreans do, and to me, that is the greater threat. But the politics of muscle, especially military muscle, is an old game that continues to be played, albeit slowly. The grand chessboard, currently controlled by the United States, makes its moves carefully and strategically, for better or worse. When it comes to the match with North Korea let's hope their next move is for the better.
 
That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

The Maple Leaf Forever

Canada suffers from an identity crisis, but every July 1st the people seem to unite under one flag and one nationality. We stand and share the honourable notions of tolerance and freedom of choice. Trouble is, it never lasts beyond the party in Ottawa. But if we look at Quebec, we find a very strong sense of nationalism and cultural identity. In fact, most Canadians are probably jealous of Quebecers for being so darn proud of themselves.
 
In Canada, June 24th is commonly known as St. Jean Baptiste Day. In Quebec it is known as fête du Nationale [Quebec National Holiday] which has a different connotation. The former celebrated the summer solstice; the latter became historically significant in 1834 when Ludger Duvernay, wanted to form the Saint Jean Baptiste Society. It was designed for the Quebecois who were upset by a similar celebration for the Irish, namely St. Patrick's Day. [Cultural differences were very strong in those days] Quebecers wanted their own holiday and they got one.
 
By 1849 the group was officially chartered and recognized by the government. In 1908, Pope Pius X designated John the Baptist as the patron saint of Quebec, thus solidifying the day politically and religiously. In 1977, the government of René Lévesque designated June 24th as a "national" holiday. But the key event was on June 24, 1880. At a meeting of the Society, the first National Congress of French Canadiens was formally created. To mark the occasion, a new song was commissioned by the Society. It was called: "O Canada."
 
I hope the irony doesn't go unnoticed.
 
That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.