More evidence today about the secret war being conducted by the PMO against some precious Canadian institutions that have helped define this country. From the tortured labyrinth of the Catholic Church we learn how the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health...formerly Planned Parenthood Canada... has had its budget gutted. According to the financial returns of the CFSH and the former PPFC, which are public information available at the Canada Revenue Agency website, the federation received $1,143,358 in federal government grants in 2005, while their total expenditures that year came to $2,360,903. In other words, Ottawa provided about half (48 per cent) of their operating budget. In 2008, grants totaled $482,498 while its expenditures dipped to $1,467,005, about a million dollars less than it spent just three years earlier.
In 2009, total grants were $9,381. The Canadian Federation for Sexual Health’s expenditures last year totalled $815,153. Federal grants accounted for just 1.1 per cent of its spending. Gutted no doubt because of its pro-choice stand.. So much for Great Mother Leader...the new/nouveau humanitarian and the friend of women and children. From Haroon Siddiqui we learn more about the ReformCon assault on Rights and Democracy. The Tory takeover of Rights and Democracy has been complex...It reports to Parliament, not the Prime Minister's Office. So the PMO has had to take a slow, circuitous route to ambush it by changing the centre's 13-member board. And how what was good enough for Lawrence Cannon and the Department of Foreign Affairs, wasn't good enough for other powerful Cons. As it turned out, Beauregard had run the three grants by Cannon's ministry, which approved. In fact, Al Haq had also received funding from CIDA. That was in keeping with the Canadian policy of promoting civil society in Palestinian territories to provide non-violent alternatives to terrorism. Al Haq was good enough for CIDA and foreign affairs but not Braun and Co. Leaving Paul Wells to draw the obvious conclusion. So if CIDA was funding Al Haq, and DFAIT was consenting to donations to Al Haq, the about-face at Rights and Democracy had to be driven from somewhere else. Probably somewhere whose initials were PMO. And leaving little me to ask the obvious question.
Who in the PMO is directing this secret war? Darrel Reid, the Deputy Chief of Staff, and a former President of the wingnut Christianist group Focus on the Family? The man who believes this: "I think every Christian is under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values...Only God can make Canada a truly Christian country... We are called to speak biblical truth to seek justice – and that obviously has implications for our political life." Paul Wilson, the PMO's Christianist Director of Policy?
Or Stephen Harper, the sinister control freak? Who recently said this:
“To be honest with you, I am a lot more concerned by God's verdict regarding my life than the one of historians..."
And where did these rabid ideologues ever get the idea they could wage this secret war against institutions that reflect our values, without the consent of most Canadians? Oh boy. However you connect the dots...KAIROS, Rights and Democracy, the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, the United Nations, and so many other policy decisions. They all lead to the theocon conspiracy. Which is why the MSM should try harder to connect the dots. And we should all ask ourselves, who is REALLY running Canada?
So many thought it couldn't happen here. Not in Canada. But now it is happening. And the conclusion should be OBVIOUS eh? Organize.Unite. Defeat these sinister SoCons. Before they steal our country....
Like many Canadians my first reaction to today's Supreme Court decision was disappointment.
Because Omar Khadr, Canadian child soldier, has suffered enough, and he should have been brought home long ago. But I bet I'm not as disappointed as Stephen Harper. I'm quite sure he was hoping the Court would order him to bring Khadr home. So he could turn to his rabid base, say I did my best. And then use the decision to whip up anger against the Supreme Court...that he hates more than Khadr. But instead the Court refused to play his game. Ruled that Khadr's Charter rights have and are being violated. And dumped the whole stinking mess back into Harper's lap. "We … leave it to the government to decide how best to respond to this judgment in light of current information, its responsibility for foreign affairs and in conformity with the charter... Leaving it up to Harper to decide whether he is going to be Mr Charter or Mr Torture.
Just as he's trying to soften his image, and trying to make us believe that he's Great Mother Leader...a born again humanitarian, and a friend of women and children.
Good luck eh?
It's hard enough trying to pose as a humanitarian...or a nun... after shutting down Parliament to try to avoid questions about torture. While declaring war on young offenders, and attacking human rights organizations. And this picture of Omar, is not going to help that phony new/nouveau image...
Goodbye Great Mother Leader, hello Mr Torture. You know I've written a lot of posts about Omar Khadr. About the horror, the injustice, and the shame. But what I find even more shameful is that in a beautiful country like this one we have a Prime Minister like Stephen Harper. A political thug who continues to rape our values, and thinks that torture isn't important. Or that Omar Khadr, Canadian child soldier, hasn't suffered ENOUGH.
He really is a monster. We really do deserve better.
Oh no. As if he hasn't humiliated us enough. The new/nouveau, kinder, gentler version of Stephen Harper flies off to some snooty economic forum, and makes an absolute fool of himself. Posing as Great Mother Leader who cares about the women and children of the world. Posing as an economist...from Bible School. Or just talking gibberish. The PM goes back to his theme of "enlightened sovereignty," and squaring the national interest with the global interest -- on all these issues -- climate change, the economy -- if you don't take the global interest into account, you find yourself making bad decisions, even if they may be politically beneficial in the short term. Wait, this *is* still the prime minister, right? Not a body double? Because this is becoming surreal. Now all we need is someone to pop up and ask about prorogation, and the Yes Men-ification of reality will become complete.
And wait. What's this? As a politician, you know, you're told over and over by your advisors and by your pollsters that, you know, "do x and x, it's good communications." But my experience is if you do bad policy in the name of good communications, that's going to catch up with you pretty quickly. Right. Because Stephen Harper doesn't do bad policy. He doesn't believe in cheap photo-ops. And he would never do ANYTHING just to boost his sagging numbers. Like sentencing kids to adult sentences. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson released proposals Thursday that would require courts to consider adult sentences for young offenders who commit serious crimes like murder or aggravated sexual assault. The plan would also allow courts to lift publication bans in certain cases. Because Great Mother Leader loves children you know. Gawd. I can't believe the thugs in the Con War Room think they are going to get away with this absurd makeover. Think that they can make Canadians love Great Ugly again...like they did when he played the piano.
We know a monster ...or a Con wolf in sheep's nun's clothing when we see one.. And hey hey, ho ho, he's really GOTTA go !!! Oh yeah...one more thing. For those hosers out there who might be fooled by Stephen Harper's drag nun act, and think that maybe just maybe he's really a.... um....nice guy? I just want to say pull your tuques down over your noses eh? And repeat after me: I...Don't....Want....To....Be....A....Canadian...IDIOT.
OMG.Hally hally boobah.I knew the monster was desperate. I knew he needed a makeover badly. But who knew it would be Mother Theresa?
As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's poorest regions. Members of the G8 can make a tangible difference in maternal and child health and Canada will be making this the top priority in June...There is a pressing need for global action on maternal and child health.
This from a man who has done nothing to tackle the shameful child health problem in Canada.
In 1980, Canada's infant mortality rate was 10th lowest in the industrialized world. It now sits in 24th spot.
Factors affecting infant mortality include the growing gap between rich and poor and the child poverty rate. Where living conditions in some aboriginal communities are as miserable as many in third world countries. Where despair rules, and kids hang themselves all the time.
This from a man whose first act was to hurt women and children by destroying plans for a national daycare system. And removing the word "equality" from the Status of Women's books. Because his wacko church tells him women are subordinate, and should stay at home barefoot and pregnant. This from a sinister Con ideologue whose political thugs have been attacking decent humanitarian organizations like KAIROS, Rights and Democracy, and even the United Nations.
Toews' statement in the Jerusalem Post that Canada has "pledged $20M towards training prosecutors, judges and police and building up the Palestinian judicial sector'' is in keeping with what Canada has been doing elsewhere, notably in Haiti. There, Canada has been building prisons and training police forces as opposed to the usual forms of humanitarian aid. Because he'd rather build prisons than feed people.
Gosh.Great Ugly Leader reborn as Great Mother Leader? The strategic geniuses ,chessplayers desperate idiots in the Con War Room must think we're as stoopid as they are.
But hopefully this time it won't work. Hopefully Canadians will realize that Harper is just trying to remake his image into a softer gentler version. As he does every time he goes over the deep end, and acts like a crazed, power hungry dictator...who would do ANYTHING to win a majority.
Even if it means playing politics with the lives of women and children. And posing as a humanitarian.
Oh boy. How do we know where to find Great Ugly Mother Leader....now that Parliament is CLOSED ?
Answer: Follow the stink trail....
And while we're at it.... How do we let those desperate losers in the Con War Room know that if they think we're IDIOTS...who can be fooled by fake sincerity and staged photo-ops...we think they're MONKEYS? Answer: By softening them up with a bunch of bananas.
And giving them a camera...
The Cons as strategic geniuses?
Stephen Harper as a HUMANITARIAN? Gimme a break....or a banana. I'm hungry Great Mother Leader !!!!!
Is Canadian foreign policy being guided by Old Testament prophesy? Are the Cons waging a secret war? You be the judge. First let's start with some excellent work by Paul Wells, who has been looking into the Rights and Democracy tragedy, and has come up with some really interesting material. You should read all of his posts. But let's start with this one. By January, the Harper government had filled the two board vacancies. One new appointee was David Matas, the legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada. The other was Michael Van Pelt, who heads a Christian think tank called Cardus. At the Cardus founding conference last autumn, Van Pelt said, “Canada’s new debate and that of the world will be one of faith and belief. It will be one of a religious character.” Then let's read this one. Where we learn that the sweaty SoCon Jason Kenney either misspoke himself or LIED about his attack on the decent humanitarian organization KAIROS. Or did others IMAGINE what he said? Steinberg also helpfully links the Rights and Democracy controversy to the government’s recent decision to cut funding to the ecumenical group Kairos. Which is odd, because Jason Kenney has angrily denied he meant what he said when he said Kairos’ funding was cut because of its stance on Israel Then let's go to the funeral of poor old Rémy Beauregard, and find out what the new chairman of Rights and Democracy believes about Jerusalem. (UPDATE: Turns out he published a doctoral thesis two years ago arguing that “Jerusalem belongs to the Jews by international law.”) Then let's take a side trip and follow the hideous SoCon sheriff Vic Toews all the way to the Middle East. Toews, who met on Monday with senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in the occupied West Bank, is quoted by the Post saying, "Canada is not reducing the amount of money given to the PA, but it is now being redirected in accordance with Canadian values." And then let's ask ourselves the obvious question: Why are Stephen Harper's Cons so OBSESSED with the Middle East? Answer: because a lot of them, and their rabid religious base, believe that Israel's main purpose in life is to provide a landing pad for the Christian Messiah. Which requires a Greater Israel, an all-Jewish Jerusalem, and no Palestinian state. And also requires the poor Israelis...who will be left behind like the rest of us heathens... to provide a battlefield on their territory for the apocalyptic conflict that will precede his arrival. The Battle of Gog and Magog.
You know the one George Bush was babbling about. The zombie battle the PMO's unofficial chaplin, the porker homophobe Charles McVety, preaches about all the time. In a PMO, where the Deputy Chief of Staff Darrel Reid served for five years as the President of the Christianist group Focus on the Family. And believesthis: "I think every Christian is under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values," Reid said on the website CanadianChristianity.com. Another Christianist Paul Wilson is the PMO Director of Policy. And Stephen Harper himself belongs to an apocalyptic church that believes that the world could end tomorrow. And that's a GOOD thing. Oh boy. Paul Wells sums it up like this. The goal of the government’s action on Kairos and Rights and Democracy has been to make moves that would be noticed by almost nobody, but would have narrow-cast appeal to a very small, very engaged component of the Conservative voter base. Simply by getting noticed outside the target voter market, that strategy has lately gone a bit awry.
And he's right. Although I would take it further. By connecting the dots, and asking this question again: are these Harperite SoCons overhauling Canada's foreign policy to conform with the hallucinogenic doomsday visions of Old Testament goat herders prophets? And is it just to appease their rabid base, or is it also because the base is THEM? Because if that's true, and Canadians find out what's really happening, the Cons will be finished FOREVER.
First they try to shutdown our democracy, now they're secretly trying to turn us into a THEOCRACY? Oh.My.Goggy. What else can you say eh? Fight them. Fight them. Fight them.
Golly. I sure hope Stephen Harper decided to play the piano last night rather than watch TV. So he couldn't see all those Canadians telling him exactly what they thought of him. Because I saw Great Strategic Genius Desperate Leader on TV yesterday morning, and he looked awful. Poor tin pot despot. I blame it on those fifteen points he lost in fifteen days. That's enough to make ANYONE look like a drunk or a junkie eh? So I can only imagine what he'll look like if he sees those pictures or reads this. In ten years working on Parliament Hill, I’ve had a front-row seat to all kinds of mass gatherings and rarely do you see one this co-ordinated, this large and this unified. It takes a lot to make Canadians take to the streets in numbers worth noting. Never before has Facebook filled Canada’s streets. It did today. Friends and families reached out to one another to voice their collective disgust at a system that allows the Prime Minister to silence the voice of debate in the House of Commons on a whim. Not too pretty I imagine. And with good reason. Because it's not just the number of Canadians who turned out in the middle of winter that was so amazing. It was the extraordinary mix of young and old, and above all the PASSION. Even in Toronto. I know because I was there.
And the energy was INCREDIBLE...
Gawd it was fun. To march down the street with a Raging Grannie, singing my absolutely favourite song. Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Stephen Harper has GOT to go !!! In fact too much fun. I was planning to make a fancy music video eh? But then I made the mistake of mixing revolution and pleasure. So all I could do was splice some clips together. *hic*
Still isn't the sound of raw democracy WONDERFUL? And out of this great start will come even greater things.
Congratulations everybody. You were all magnificent. Today we march. Tomorrow we organize. Then we vote.
Can you believe the timing? Tomorrow's rallies for democracy will take place on the fourth anniversary of the day Stephen Harper and his Cons came to power. He promised to change Canada beyond recognition. And boy did he ever. "Here's the verdict: We're less prosperous, less respected, less fair and we're less democratic. That's Stephen Harper's record." Once we were peacekeepers and humanitarians. Now we're torture freaks and planet burners. Now this sinister political thug is getting to use his reckless deficit as an excuse, to stab and slash away at government services and Canadian institutions, until the knife scrapes the bone.
Mr. Harper said yesterday Ottawa doesn't plan significant cuts to transfers, although he seemed to leave the door open to smaller trims. “We are not looking at the kind of deep cuts in program transfers we saw by the previous [Liberal] government.”
Last week he was promising NOT to cut transfer payments. Now he says he will.
Bye bye lower tuition fees, bye bye medicare. The young have no future, just a lifetime of low paying jobs. The old will die in hospitals being served watery soup and toast for supper, and using catheters ripped out of corpses. But then we've changed too.
Four years of HarperCon rule have made us a nastier, meaner, greedier society. And much much more AMERIKAN. So while I always try to inspire hope in others, I have to admit that I've been slowly losing it myself.
Which is why for me tomorrow's rallies are so important. A last chance to show that democracy counts. A last chance to keep hope alive. A last chance to show that the Canada we love isn't dead yet.
Which is why I made slightly different version of a video I first ran last night...
As long as there is resistance there is hope. Tomorrow let's make our voices heard. We want Canada to be Canada eh? Down with the AmeriCons and their crazy leader.
Uh Oh. Gotterdammerung alert. I understand the sinister operatives in the Con war room are starting to get desperate. The polls are...um... discouraging disastrous. Prorogation is on the radar of Canadians after all. And after even all those crass photo-ops there's no sign of a Haiti Bump. “Clearly, the diversion of attention to a pretty well flawless performance on the Haiti crisis to date has not taken the Conservatives out of the penalty box with voters yet,” he told The Globe. “This underscores the depth of public disenchantment.”
Although I see the SoCon sow Jason Kenney is doing his best to suckle it. By bringing in a planeful of orphans ...not yesterday as their parents in Canada have been demanding...but this weekend, no doubt hoping to steal away the headlines from the prorogation protest. While denying entry to the families of Haitian Canadians, so these foul Cons can win the racist vote by keeping all those black people out. While posing as HUMANITARIANS. Oh boy. Are these Reform Harperites UGLY or what? But then that's why we fight them eh? Which reminds me... I heard that the founder of the Facebook group is asking people not to attack Stephen Harper, and concentrate on reforming Parliament. Now I understand why he's saying that. He wants to build a non-partisan coalition of progressives and decent Conservatives. And good for him, that's a noble goal. But of course I can't go along with that...unless my lips were sealed with krazy glue. Or my tongue was cut out. However, I do promise not to be too rowdy, or beat my drum too loudly, and to tell my friends that if they plan on making any signs to make sure they're not too rude... and spelt rite. Because we don't want to look too young and ignorant eh? Wot? But seriously here's the thing. I do support this awesome Facebook movement all the way. I think it's BRILLIANT. I do want to see our Parliament get back to work. And reformed so it's a better place, and a more dignified House of Democracy. But right now. More than ANYTHING. I want my country back....
Oh well. You know it doesn't really matter why people attend this Saturday's rallies.
On that day we'll all just be ordinary Canadians standing up for a better Canada. The important thing is to bring your friends, and your signs, your idealism, and your enthusiasm. Just BE THERE. Because although it's a serious issue. It's also a Democracy Party. And we're going to have FUN !!!!
In Haiti, another aftershock, even as the slow motion nightmare continues. Food and water and medical supplies at the airport. But not where they are desperately needed. Is it just a logistical problem or is it something worse? Are the rescuers afraid of the people they are supposed to save? There has now solidified a consensus among aid organisations that the relief they are bringing is itself a liability; that distributing what Haitians are dying for – literally – will bring on a second nightmare. So, supplies pile up at the airport because, apparently, the Haitians need to be fed and watered at gunpoint. And there aren't enough men with guns to provide this totemic "security" and there aren't enough trucks to move the supplies around the country. And is the media part of the problem? Frei's reluctance to recognise the amazing self-control of these desperate people, and instead to amplify the hysteria about violence for which he has scant evidence, has brought him at times worryingly close to calling the Haitians savages. When considering how much they are suffering the Haitians have been amazingly restrained. Staring at food on the other side of a fence that they can't have. Is it because they're poor? Furthermore, to the horror of many godfearing Americans, voodoo is an officially recognised religion in Haiti. And, perhaps above all, Haitians are poor and black. In the view of some Americans those two add up to ... murderous gangs. Is it madness? Or is it just racism rearing its ugly head again? I hope not. Because if that is the case, it will taint this rescue effort forever. And all I can say is thank goodness for these heroes. And the strength of the Haitian people. Because the ugly truth is that when they needed us the most. The world let them down...
I suppose I could write about Stephen Harper's ridiculous little cabinet shuffle. But what more is there to say? Except that a bunch of stinky Cons moved their ugly asses from one chair to another. To try to show that they can shutdown our Parliament ....and still look busy. I suppose I could talk about the brutish SoCon sheriff Vic Toews who is our new Minister of Public Insecurity. His appalling record on matters of justice. And how him and his Cons are demeaning our Canadian values. Toews' statement in the Jerusalem Post that Canada has "pledged $20M towards training prosecutors, judges and police and building up the Palestinian judicial sector'' is in keeping with what Canada has been doing elsewhere, notably in Haiti. There, Canada has been building prisons and training police forces as opposed to the usual forms of humanitarian aid.
By building prisons instead of feeding people. But all I can think about is DADDY !!!!! I could also say something about his fellow theocon Stockwell "Doris" Day. But I think this cartoon says it all...
Praise the Lord and pass the chain saw.
Because now these theocons are running the government. I could tell you about the useless Christian Paradis, the new Minister of Dirty Oil. And what's going to happen to him in Quebec...and Ontario... when people finally realize how the Tar Sands are KILLING CANADA. A recent study by a University of Ottawa professor and others estimates that 42 per cent of the job loss in Canadian manufacturing over the last few years resulting from the rise in the dollar can be attributed to our rise in oil exports, and identifies the computer and electronics, textile, transportation, machinery, paper and plastics sectors as those most affected. Ontario and Quebec are home to the majority of these industries. If the Big Oil posse or the Wild Rosehip rednecks don't get him first. Then there's Rona Ambrose who is no doubt hoping that Canadians have forgotten how she performed the last time she was a big-time minister. But fortunately I haven't...
I've been saving that one for years. And lastly and definitely LEASTLY, I could say a few words about today's big loser Lisa Raitt. But why bother? When mediocrity is her own worst punishment. And I'd rather talk about a shining, gentle talent who made me proud to be a Canadian, and a Montrealer. The beautiful Kate McGarrigle who left us too soon. Today they were singing her praises in English and French. In a country as divided as ours what more can you ask for eh? This song is about a sad time in American history. But it might as well be about living in Stephen Harper's Canada.
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary, Hard Times, hard times, come again no more Many days you have lingered around my cabin door; Oh hard times come again no more. I'll remember that on Saturday when I attend this protest.
Remember Kate and how much better we are, when we celebrate our kinder, gentler Canadian values...instead of Stephen Harper's AmeriCon ones. When we remember that Con times are hard times. And why they must go and never come again no more.
Down with the dictator.
And because too much passion won't kill us eh? But not enough will. Long live our beautiful Canada !!!
I was really happy and proud to see Canadian soldiers and doctors helping people in Haiti today. It's so great to see our troops acting as peacekeepers and humanitarians again. Instead of killing and getting killed in a place like Afghanistan.
But I can't understand why Stephen Harper is getting so much credit for doing what any Canadian Prime Minister would have done. And I have to admit this story makes me shudder. In the space of a few days, Parliament Hill has morphed from being a symbol of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's high-handed contempt for democracy into an emblem of his compassion and concern for the people of Haiti. "To show solidarity with the people of Haiti, in a small yet special way, starting tonight the Parliament buildings will be illuminated in Haitian colours."
These would be the same Parliament buildings that Harper summarily shut down on Dec. 30, decreeing that they would not reopen for business until March 3. The same buildings that were featured in Liberal attack ads earlier in the week - surrounded by a chain link fence plastered with a sign proclaiming the Hill "closed out of self-interest" by Harper. Because it suggests that we can't help the poor people of Haiti, and help keep our democracy alive at the same time. And that we should just shut up, and accept that this protest has been buried. Which is absolute nonsense. Because our democracy belongs to the Canadian people. And to surrender our right to protest is to agree with Stephen Harper that our Parliament is worthless. Not just broken by Harper and his thugs. Especially since Great Ugly Leader is trying to turn this humanitarian mission into a public relations exercise to make Canadians forget about his assault on Parliament, and boost his sagging popularity. Like he did at this news conference on Haiti the other day.
He had six ministers with him. But every time one of those ministers was asked a question Harper answered it FIRST. And then the minister repeated what he said. Does that sound like leadership or SELF PROMOTION? Yup. Our sinister would be dictator hasn't changed his stripes. He's mugged our Parliament, dressed it up like a Christmas tree, and is using a human tragedy to shield him from questions about torture, while he drives off in the getaway car. All the way to Haiti. Because you just KNOW he'll be there soon. Posing with the troops and telling them I just can't believe the opposition would accuse YOU of torturing people. Oh boy. I'm sure the boys in the Con war room are already planning that one. Once it was was Operation Recalibrate. Now it's Operation Rehabilitate...
But I'm also sure these war room operatives are spooked by this protest. And so they should be. For what these Cons have done to our beautiful Canada is simply unforgivable. Next Saturday join the rallies for democracy. Get organized. Follow his example. Send a message to those crass political thugs: Canadians are not sheep. We want our country back. And on January 23, wherever you are in Canada eh?
I spent the weekend trying to avoid the sights and sounds of this human catastrophe.
But of course I couldn't, because to look away would be criminal. It's that awful.The devastation, the suffering, the lack of food, water and medicines.
And the worst thing of all. The cry of so many desperate survivors... where is the world?
"It has been four days since this thing," the man, Jean-Claude Hilaire, began. "And nobody has come yet. My area, Bel Air, is devastated. About 200,000 people have lost their homes. Twenty thousand – kids, pregnant women – are sleeping hungry in the local park. That's long enough. I need to know: is anybody coming? Is anybody going to do anything?" It's so frustrating and depressing. I know it's a logistical nightmare. I know a lot of good people are working their hearts out to help the Haitians.... even as some mourn their own.
The agency has lost dear loved ones. Many officials have lost all their belongings. Some United Nations section chiefs, officials said, are still sleeping in their cars. Water is so scarce that taking a bottle off someone’s desk can lead to hurtful confrontations. And workers said food was in such short supply the agency was considering charging for their daily rations. But it all seems so agonizingly slow.
And my only consolation is the amazing strength of the Haitian people. Or, as Bob Herbert calls it, the resolve among the ruins.
Enslavement, murderous colonial oppression, invasions by powerful foreign armies, grotesque homegrown tyrants, natural disasters — all you have to do is wait a while in Haiti for the next catastrophe to strike.
And yet. No matter how overwhelming the tragedy, how bleak the outlook, no matter what malevolent forces the fates see fit to hurl at this tiny, beleaguered, mountainous, sun-splashed portion of the planet, there is no quit in the Haitian people.
They were brutally oppressed by their French colonizers, burned at the stake, buried alive, boiled in cauldrons of molasses. The United States tried to smother their baby republic in its crib. They have been betrayed by their own leaders, cheated, robbed, and worn down by poverty. They have been hit by one natural catastrophe after the other.
But still they endure.
Which is what I took away from one shiningly beautiful picture of a two-year-old boy who was pulled out of the ruins the other day.
He was sobbing and miserable in the arms of one of his rescuers.
Until he caught sight of his mum...
Love among the ruins.
You know endurance is an awesome quality. But the Haitian people have endured too much for too long. And when this horror is finally over, they must NEVER be abandoned again... ------------------------------------------------------- P.S. If you can help, here's a pretty good list of ways you can contribute.
In Malawi, a gay couple goes on trial for the crime of getting married. Tiwonge Chimbalanga, who has spent more than a week in one of the country’s most congested prisons, vomited and stumbled onto the dusty court floor just before the case was due to start.
As he lay on the ground he was jeered by members of the public who had crowded in to watch what has become a cause célèbre and a test case for gay rights in the African nation.
Just in case you thought that Uganda is the only African country where gays are treated like animals. At Notre Dame University, where tuition costs are about $40-thousand a year, somebody thinks this is a joke.
What’s the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?”
“No idea.”
“A baseball bat.” Just a few days after a twisted old Pope says gays are a threat to creation. In the United States two men are indicted. For this hate crime...
And I get this anonymous comment on my blog. Simon, Keep up the good work. As long as we know that faggots like you hate Harper we know that are in good hands. For a post about heroes and bullies.
But what do you expect eh? When Harper's Deputy Chief of Staff...one of the most powerful men in the PMO...believes that protecting gays from hate crimes is a Nazi thing.
And Harper himself believes that gays choose to be who they are. Oh boy. Homophobes, religious crazies, Cons, and scumbuckets. Now you know why I fight them...
Well I see the nasty Con garden gnome Jimbo Flaherty says he can slay the deficit without spending cuts or tax increases. Which most serious economists consider a heap of manure. And then has the nerve to jump up and bite Kevin Page in the knees nuts. Unlike Page, “We don’t shoot from the hip on this,” Flaherty snapped. The government’s fiscal forecasts are based on careful analysis using information from private sector economists and business executives, Flaherty said. Page released a report this week saying that Flaherty has raised spending and cut taxes so much that, even when the recession ends, Ottawa won’t have enough revenue to balance its books. This so-called structural, or built-in, deficit means the federal government would still be facing a revenue shortfall of $19 billion in 2013-14. Hmmm....let's see....how do their records compare? Jimbo said we wouldn't have a deficit, Page said we would, and we DID. Then Jimbo said it would just be a teeny weeny deficit, Page said it would be huge, and it WAS. So what is anyone with a brain bigger than a garden gnome supposed to believe?
Right.
But then Jimbo is the nasty little Con, who when he was part of Mike Harris' thug government, left behind a six billion dollar deficit as a goodbye present. And a province that was just a shadow of the place it once was.
A miserable dark place with so many homeless people Jimbo wanted them JAILED. And now with his new master Stephen Harper, he is planning to use the massive deficit he created with his reckless economic policies, to cut government to the bone. Slash and burn social services, kill the CBC, the NFB, and other Canadian institutions, and strangle medicare. Which is what him and Harper were planning to do in the first place. The very reason for their existence. Oh boy. Most Canadians have no idea what kind of dark jungle they are going to wake up in one day.
But they won't be able to say I didn't warn them eh?
With one of my first videos...
Golly. I've gotten better since then I hope. But Jimbo is still the rotten little Con he always was.
And BTW did you know he's also one of the many theocons in the Harper regime? And that his special guest in Parliament the day he brought down his first budget was the Christianist porker homophobe Charles McVety?
Because it really is a CONSPIRACY.And one more reason why I say this can only be the BEGINNING.
Defeat them, crush them, finish them off. Toss the garden gnome and his thug Cons into the compost heap of history.
When you look at this before and after satellite shot, you know the street-level view is going to be almost unbearable.
At the Ecole Normale Delmas emergency teams extracted the bodies of teenage schoolgirls in orange uniforms. Their faces were smashed.
Laura Bickle, an orphanage worker, said the parks were filled with people with no homes or shelter to go to. "They are pulling people out of the rubble, literally, blood running in the gutter like water."
An absolute horror. And to make matters worse the port is so damaged, and the airport so small, it's making it hard for aid to reach the poor people who need it so desperately.
This screenshot I took off Flightaware.com this evening just about says it all.
An executive jet from Fort Lauderdale approaches Port-au-Prince airport (MTPP) but is forced to turn back.
Still I was happy and proud to see that Canadian aid is on its way. But did those Harper Cons really have to turn it into a cheap photo-op?
Today Defence Minister Peter Mackay is posing in Halifax as the HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax leave for Haiti.
At about the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, were staging a photo op making a donation to the Canadian Red Cross.
Enough already. Stop posing for photo ops and just get on with the business of helping Haiti.
But who knew they were so crass they could turn a tragedy into an ad for themselves?
Especially since instead of patting themselves on the back, they should be apologizing for yet another broken promise.
The devastation in Haiti has propelled Canada's military disaster response team back into the national spotlight, but also raises questions about a longstanding Conservative promise to expand the emergency force.
DART's complement of about 200 people has only grown by eight since 2006, despite the expansion promise.
Shame on them. Oh well. At least we know what we have to do. First we do all we humanly can to help the poor suffering Haitian people.
Because their needs are so desperate. And we have to help them rebuild their shattered country.
Then we help ourselves...by building on this. Then we get rid of the crass dictator and his Con stooges. And rebuild our beautiful Canada...
