New Year's Resolution

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Israel is again bombarding Gaza. Hundreds have been killed. Four Israelis have been killed. Looks like the death equation which I've mentioned before is alive and well. Much like the currency exchange with its ups and downs, Israeli lives are much more valuable at the end of 2008. Currently it's looking like an exchange rate of 100 Palestinian lives for 1 Israeli life.

Wow! Let's all invest in Israel and their measured response. You get a great return. Except if you're Palestinian, then you never get to return.

The White House, sensing that logical and compassionate people the world over are recognizing this secret equation exists, made this dismal statement: “We want Israel to avoid civilian casualties. But let’s be careful about some of the numbers we’re seeing coming out of Gaza. But also, you know, what about the three people, I believe, I saw reported today that were killed in Israel by rockets? I’m not going to compare numbers between the two locations.”

But you just did, stupid fuck!

Israeli politicians continue to demand that their citizens in the south of their country be left in peace. However such stupid comments betray a disregard for a long and bloody history full of displacement and sadness. What of the Palestinians who used to live in the land these "settlers" now occupy? What of their lives in the world's biggest refugee camp? What will happen when Hamas wins elections again in the New Year?

Forget peace, we need justice in this world. Peace has had its day.

Evil Christmas Greetings

The full translation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Christmas message that will be broadcast on Channel 4 tonight:

"In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.

"Upon the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, Son of Mary, the Word of God, the Messenger of mercy, I would like to congratulate the followers of Abrahamic faiths, especially the followers of Jesus Christ, and the people of Britain.

"The Almighty created the universe for human beings and human beings for Himself.

"He created every human being with the ability to reach the heights of perfection. He called on man to make every effort to live a good life in this world and to work to achieve his everlasting life.

"On this difficult and challenging journey of man from dust to the divine, He did not leave humanity to its own devices. He chose from those He created the most excellent as His Prophets to guide humanity.

"All Prophets called for the worship of God, for love and brotherhood, for the establishment of justice and for love in human society. Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the standard-bearer of justice, of love for our fellow human beings, of the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice.

"All the problems that have bedevilled humanity throughout the ages came about because humanity followed an evil path and disregarded the message of the Prophets.

"Now as human society faces a myriad of problems and a succession of complex crises, the root causes can be found in humanity's rejection of that message, in particular the indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings of the divine Prophets, especially those of Jesus Christ.

"The crises in society, the family, morality, politics, security and the economy which have made life hard for humanity and continue to put great pressure on all nations have come about because the Prophets have been forgotten, the Almighty has been forgotten and some leaders are estranged from God.

"If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.

"If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over.

"If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would fight against the tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political systems, as He did in His lifetime.

"The solution to today's problems is a return to the call of the divine Prophets. The solution to these crises is to follow the Prophets - they were sent by the Almighty for the good of humanity.

"Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change. This is now taking place. Demands for change, demands for transformation, demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of the nations of the world.

"The response to these demands must be real and true. The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions. If tyrannical goals are repackaged in an attractive and deceptive package and imposed on nations again, the people, awakened, will stand up against them.

"Fortunately, today, as crises and despair multiply, a wave of hope is gathering momentum. Hope for a brighter future and hope for the establishment of justice, hope for real peace, hope for finding virtuous and pious rulers who love the people and want to serve them – and this is what the Almighty has promised.

"We believe Jesus Christ will return, together with one of the children of the revered Messenger of Islam and will lead the world to love, brotherhood and justice.

"The responsibility of all followers of Christ and Abrahamic faiths is to prepare the way for the fulfilment of this divine promise and the arrival of that joyful, shining and wonderful age.

"I hope that the collective will of nations will unite in the not too distant future and with the grace of the Almighty Lord, that shining age will come to rule the earth.

"Once again, I congratulate one and all on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray for the New Year to be a year of happiness, prosperity, peace and brotherhood for humanity. I wish you every success and happiness."

Post-Race?

Despite the claims that we are entering a post-race period of history with the election of Barack Obama to the White House, racism in Canada, at least, is alive and well. Sometimes racism is subtle like when you get asked where you're really from. Sometimes it's not so subtle like when you have your teeth smashed in because of the colour of your skin. In both cases you have to expose it.

The recent conviction of JSR, the African-Canadian youth charged with the murder of Jane Creba on Boxing Day 2005, was so clearly motivated by racism that it defies belief. There was no physical evidence linking JSR to Creba's murder. The bullet that killed her did not come from his gun nor did his hands show evidence of having fired a shot that day. How then could he be charged with second degree murder?

Surely JSR was a party to a gunfight and therefore guilty of a dangerous crime. But second degree murder is too harsh given the facts. He is clearly guilty of participating in a shootout and therefore is guilty of a serious crime but the colour of his skin played a major role in his conviction and public demonization. Would there have been the same level of outrage and judicial pursuit had the victim been a young black man or the shooter been a white male?

For many days in December, I have endured gruesome report after gruesome report about the torture and murder of Phoenix Sinclair on CBC Radio One. Beaten, imprisoned, frozen, and forced to eat her own vomit: these words are seared into my memory and the memories of tens of thousands of other listeners. Clearly this is a hideous crime carried out by the girl's own parents and no excuse can be made for their crimes but a greater worry may be the vision of First Nations peoples promoted by these endless reports.

Each day the association of “aboriginal” and “reserve” with these hideous crimes conditioned listeners. From what I heard, I felt that this reporting reinforced the paternalistic attitudes toward First Nations common amongst the Canadian middle classes.

There is terrible lack of complexity in this reporting and the result is clearly dangerous. The legacy of residential schools is still with us. It would be dangerous to paint all First Nations people with the same brush due to a single miserable case of child abuse. Obviously the reporters at CBC Radio One missed this one.

And last and certainly least according to Stephen Harper, there's Omar Khadr, the Canadian apprehended for fighting with the Taliban and allegedly killing a US soldier in Afghanistan in 2001. Setting aside that he was captured as a 15 year old and was clearly forced to aid the Taliban and Al Qaeda by his father his treatment is telling when compared with two other high profile captives of the “war on terror”.

Does anyone remember John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban? Though he, like Khadr, fought with the Taliban against the American invasion of Afghanistan, he was able have his day in court. He is now serving a 20 year sentence. Though this is a harsh sentence to be sure, he avoided the death penalty and a military tribunal something that could not be said about the child soldier, Omar Khadr.

Or how about David Hicks, the Australian who fought for the Taliban and was captured in Afghanistan. He is now back living in Australia having been released by his American captors. Again, no different from Khadr, except in one key way, Hicks was an adult making adult decisions and aware of the consequences of his actions. If anything, like Khadr, he should be in Guantanamo Bay, waterboarded, subjected to the frequent flyer program and prevented from seeing the evidence against him.

It seems there is justice and then there is justice. You can find out where you stand on a colour chart. Khadr has darker skin than these other two men. Case closed. So where these men go home or at least get their days in court, Khadr waits for his day before a military tribunal that has already drawn its own conclusions. Much like the conviction of JSR and the reporters covering Phoenix Sinclair, everyone already knows that blacks are violent and “Indians” are bad parents. Simple enough for you?

It seems we've still got a long way to go before we get to that proposed post-race world.

The New White House

So George W. Bush will be leaving the White House on January 20, 2009. Apparently he's going to miss the place so he's decided to try his best to live in another white house.

Just missed it by eight years Georgie Boy! Don't worry though, rules like this are going to be coming back, you're just planning ahead.

And so are we.

From Democracy Now!

"And President Bush has bought a new home in an exclusive section of Dallas. Up until 2000, the gated community had a neighborhood association covenant that allowed only whites to own property. The document said the area’s land “shall be used and occupied by white persons only except these covenants shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant.”"

Comment is Stupid

Though I'm trying not to focus on the negative news about climate change, it's kind of hard to miss. We're doomed. Hopefully some of us will still be able to get by as the North Koreans manage to do. They are examples to us all. Hope you're ready for grass soup, if we're lucky enough to have grass. I'm confident we will. Unfortunately we might not have much else, especially since we are throwing away our precious heirloom seeds at an unprecedented rate.

And that's the problem. We know we're in trouble but we don't know how bad. How about an average global temperature increase of 4 degrees Celsius? That's bad. Read the linked article for details about how we have to go much further than we ever thought with cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

But what has started as another rant about climate change (how can you not when you're future dreams are over!), was meant to be about new media. Have you noticed now that every news story in any online publication gives the reader the ability to post comments? Have you also noticed that almost every single comment is repulsive? And in most cases the comments attack previous commentators instead of dealing with the issues rationally.

I'm tempted to go conspiracy and claim that the devil is enlisting unemployed Republicans, Conservatives and other crackpots around the world to post comments on whatever they feel. Seriously, all the comments generally seem to support traditionally right-wing perspectives. I thought liberals and environmentalists were the ones into technology?

In the recent travesty of justice that was the "trial" of JSR in the murder of Jane Creba, I read comments following a lame story suggesting the death penalty for this young man, a minor at the time of the murder. I'm all for mob justice but at least give the guy a fair trial before you hang him (does this remind you of Mississipi Burning). His lawyer rightly balked at the verdict given that the evidence showed that a gun in his posession was not the gun that killed her. How could he then be the murderer? An accomplice perhaps but second degree murder? Fuck that.

I should say that this trial demonstrates that in the absence of evidence and actual suspects, the legal system will target a person of colour for killing a sweet, little white girl. It might as well still be the 1950s in the South (minus the hanging, lest the commentators have their way). I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, and I do regret her death, a tragedy caused by a stupid group of thugs, but this is not a just result. But of course this young man is going to disappear into the prison system which means we'll likely hear from him again.

And lastly, back to climate change. George Monbiot again is masterful describing the insanity surrounding the end of civilization. The insanity we targets this time is rightly all those crazy commentators calling climate change a hoax and a tax grab and "proving" that sunspots are behind the whole thing.

Sure, burning all that coal and at the same time, cutting down trees, is completely normal. Where are these people coming from? Who is paying them to surf and comment as if they knew what they were talking about? Must be all the middle managers and bureaucrats who have nothing better to do as their empires collapse around them and their retirement funds go up in flames.

If you can stomach it read his article and better still the comments. I can barely read two before I shut off and seek the sanity of Democracy Now.

Coalition

Well these certainly are interesting times. This should probably have happened a long time ago but finally the Liberals have decided to work with the NDP directly. The majority of Canadians, without question, would support this progressive team.

Some Liberals will hate it because they won't be able to go as far to the right as they would like to appease their corporate masters. But they'll look really good thanks to the NDP which will mean they'll win a majority in the next election and then behave like Conservatives.

But for now hopefully we'll get some progressive legislation on climate change which should be all that really matters. Climate change is actually caused by the economy so by supporting the economy you actually fuel climate change. The recession is the best thing that could have happened since greenhouse gas emissions with decline. You won't hear that on TV.

But the coalition seems good to go. Now we'll have to see if the elites decide to let them take power. I can already hear those elites worrying about the "socialists", as if the NDP could claim that title. And Harper and his crew keep banging on about the "separatists" as if the Bloc is something other than a regional party.

I can't wait to see Steve Harper as the leader of the Official Opposition probably in January. But I'm not counting him out yet. The Conservatives aren't going to give up without a fight. The longer this goes on and the longer the economy rots the better to my mind. Let's learn to take care of ourselves and we won't need this stupid global economy/death machine anymore. It's not as scary as we might think.

And remember, you can't spell coalition without coal. I'm sure there's a stimulus package for coal mining somewhere out there.

Stimulated

Economic stimulus. It's like stroking a gun. But that's all you hear. We need more money for forestry: clear cut all you want. We need money for mining: dump your effluent in as many lakes as you like. Manufacturing needs help: air quality, forget it!

Listening to the news, it's almost like the economy is a person. Or more likely a god who needs all our prayers to survive. All things come from the economy. We must do anything to protect and ensure it thrives.

Just ignore all the shit that the economy, the global economy we should be clear, produces. All that cancer, all those gasping children. It's all part of the package. Bow down and doom the world.