I’m not much of a fan of the National Post as I find many of its writers a lot more right leaning (I’m trying to be kind) than I have tolerance for. However, as intolerant as I am of these writers, I do occasionally  read their drivel if for nothing else to make sure I really am still intolerant of them.

So, rather than subject myself to actually reading the National Post, I follow them on Twitter and scan the headlines they tweet for items of interest. One caught my attention today “Louise Arbour speaks out on the world’s worst country — Canada“, a piece written by Kelly McParland.

I have a lot of respect for Mme Arbour having read about her actions in Bosnia and the Hague. I admired her gutsy stands, especially in bringing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic in the face of some of the NATO countries demonstrating their lack of will in bringing him to justice. I admired that she is not only a gutsy woman in an often man’s world but a gutsy Canadian woman.

McParland on the other hand, appears to be very good at the type of armchair journalism which can be pretty safe to engage in. You know, the kind of writing that bloggers, like me, do from the comfort of our homes. Except he gets paid and should be writing to a higher standard.

What McParland was slamming Arbour over was her candid remarks made to Olivia Ward in her piece today in the Toronto Star; “Louise Arbour can finally talk about world’s worst regimes“. During the interview Arbour shared that she can now speak her mind in her current position as President and CEO of the International Crisis Group.

What set McParland off is this:

“Is Canada punching below its weight?” she says. “Is it punching at all?”

Ottawa, Arbour argues, is “largely absent on the international scene. It’s very difficult to capture any kind of message, position or form of engagement these days.”

And she adds, “when I was prosecutor in 1996, it mattered what Canada thought. On issues of justice and ethics, it mattered what the Canadian position was. There was a sense that you would get an honest, well-thought-out approach. Not just a raw pursuit of ideological or national interest.”

I went over and read the piece myself. It didn’t take me a degree in journalism to take a reasonable guess that Olivia Ward was engaged in an interview with Louise Arbour and since she had limited space for her piece, she focused on Arbour’s remarks that were relevant to Canadians. It is after all, a Canadian newspaper and Canadian audience. You can pick up pretty easily that there were other countries discussed.

Just to make sure my impressions weren’t just assumptions on my part I shot an email off to Ward. Apparently McParland didn’t think about that simple little stop, but then it would have robbed him of his rant material. She responded in short order and yes, my assumptions were correct.

Arbour is correct in her comments. It is very difficult to know where Canada stands on much of anything and when you do figure out a stand it drips with partisan ideology. Canada at one time had a nuanced approach to the conflicts in the Middle East.

We didn’t trumpet Israel as taking a “measured response” when they bombed the Gaza. We wouldn’t have stayed silent over their use of phosphorus weapons on a civilian population, like we have recently. We wouldn’t have cut off funding to an aid group like KAIROS for having the temerity to criticise the actions of Israel.

When Canada took a stand, it meant something more than pandering to the right wing Christian Evangelical interests in the political party of government.

These days, Harper is quick to strut on the world stage and claim Canada is no longer a ‘soft power’, but with our military refitting and boots on the ground in places like Afghanistan and Haiti that we can prove ourselves as ‘hard power’ through our capabilities.

One of his most recent chest thumpings took place in Haiti in February. I’ll give him his due, Canada reacted swiftly to the devastating earthquake there on February 12th. Putting 2000 Canadian troops on the ground is swift order should have made most Canadians puff a bit with pride. Course, less noticed was that within a couple of months, those troops were just as quickly pulled out.

Having never heard of ICG organization, I looked it up and spent some time exploring their site. Too bad McParland didn’t take some time to do the same. It places Arbour’s comments in even more perspective. She isn’t speaking just from past experiences, she’s speaking from today’s experiences.

This 15 year old non-profit group is independent and non-governmental. They focus on trying to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts like Afghanistan amongst about 60 hot spots in the world. A scan down the list of their board members shows an international cast of all stars who have had up close experience in hot spots. They are not armchair quarterbacks.

The reports they have prepared and delivered on their research in these areas are available for reading on the website. I took a read down through their most recent report on Afghanistan and from their linked to another paper and was scanning down through that when I came across this:

Kabul recently surreptitiously resurrected an amnesty law that grants immunity to the warlords who currently rule the country and to the brutal extremists who seek to supplant them. The law may well apply to Baradar if he agreed to join the reconciliation process. This controversial “National Reconciliation, General Amnesty and National Stability Law” had languished in legal limbo since first appearing three years ago, until it was put on the books late last year in an apparent election-related deal with several of Karzai’s key supporters. The law grants blanket amnesty to the perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities, forcing victims to negotiate their claims through the virtually defunct Afghan justice system.

Canada, the US and other allies appear to have placed a cone of silence over this action. Thankfully the International Criminal Court, to which Afghanistan signed on to in 2005 and is thus subject to, is considering launching a formal investigation into war crimes there in the last seven years. With some of the Taliban leadership in custody in Pakistan, the ICC appears to be the mostly likely place to bring them to justice.

So, why exactly is ‘hard power’ Harper not standing up and breaking the silence on the Karzai government’s corruption and subterfuge? Why is he not pressing the other allies to step up and demand better when our country’s blood and treasure has gone into trying to bring stability to this country?

If McParland wants to have a good rant, he might want to look where Arbour is coming from and what is backing her up. He’d have enough material to keep his pay cheque coming for several months.

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As the volcano in Iceland continues to spew forth ash and the cloud continues to spread itself across Europe and now apparently to the eastern shores of North America I’ve wondered how long the airlines would be tolerant of the prudence being shown by the air traffic controllers.

I’m going to say at the outset, I have never flown on an aircraft and at this point in my life have never had a need to. I have on occasion turned my vehicle into a flying vehicle due to lead footitis but I’ve never left the ground.

I’m sure millions of travellers stuck in countries they are trying to leave would certainly like to see planes flying to get them home. Over the weekend some European airlines sent up test flights through the volcanic ash cloud. At this point, they seem to be claiming their planes returned without any problems or damage.

Affected airlines are losing millions of dollars a day as this situation continues to drag on. Weather forecasters are now saying this will likely continue for days at a minimum and possible weeks depending on how long it takes this volcano to settle down. Meanwhile a NATO F-16 who flew through the cloud area reportedly has sustained damage to its engines.

From the material I’ve read, most volcanoes initial eruption sends ash cloud into the air and then it settles as the volcano sends out molten lava. The Iceland volcano is erupting within a ice-field which means that the lava is being cooled by the ice which it hasn’t been able to instantly melt, this sends more and more ash cloud into the sky.

Weather patterns, not just winds, move the cloud around. Right now a high pressure system extending from Newfoundland to Iceland is pulling cloud from Iceland towards Canadian shores as it turns in a clockwise pattern. Two low pressure systems are sitting just below that high pressure and are moving counterclockwise. At least one of those lows will pull some of the cloud out of the high and down the eastern US seaboard.

And we thought there was chaos happening in Europe.

It appears that winds and weather patterns are capable of moving this grit filled cloud farther and faster than expected just as airlines are getting really anxious about the millions they are losing.

Were their test flights successful or are they wilfully overlooking effects which could potentially have devastating effects on planes making their way through the skies? Will world governments give into pressure from airlines and stranded passengers to get them to their destinations?

Even more frightening will be the prospect of planes full of hundreds of passengers at a time playing Russian roulette in the name of world commerce. Mother nature has a devastating way of showing us just who is in control doesn’t she?

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I’ve been watching the furor which has erupted over the payment of bonuses to employees at AIG in the US.  Edward Liddy, the man appointed by the government to oversee AIG, claims the bonuses need to be paid out as they are a debt owed by the company. Liddy is not one of those receiving funds, he receives $1 annually, so this is not about his pocketbook.

From what I have read, the agreement to pay these bonuses was made early in 2008 which preceeded the stock market meltdown. I rather doubt the agreement preceeded any awareness at all on  AIGs part that the company was in financial trouble. Seems to me some pretty hard questions need to be asked about just who had the authority to agree to allow such a huge amount of money to be paid out.

Logic says that is should have been someone pretty high up in the company and should have been aware of the financial situation. The reality is, the current financial crisis wasn’t totally a shot from the blue. The depth and seriousness of it has been a bit of a shock but the fact that something was pending is not. I’ve been seeing signs of what was coming for the last 2-3 years and I’m not involved in a high finance industry.

Someone, or several knew the reaction these bonuses were going to get or the government would have known about the pending payment weeks ago, not just a week or so ago. Who knew and why were they not required to fully inform the government who is pretty much a majority stock holder with their huge bailout packout?

Then the questions go to those receiving the funds. Just because the company is making the funds available doesn’t mean that the recipient doesn’t have a moral obligation to decline receipt of the bonus. Something that slipped by most people’s radar here in Canada is that the heads of our major banks all declined to accept their bonuses this year.

Canadian banks have not received a government bailout and unlike most other systems around the world, they remain profitable. They would have had justification in taking their bonuses but had the good sense to decline to do so.

AIG employees, on the other hand, have taken part in the decline of their company to the point that the government had to step in or watch a large part of the financial system unravel. They shouldn’t need to have the bonuses taken away, they shouldn’t be taking them in the first place.

Bonuses were always supposed to be for being part of generating good returns. When did they become reward for bad returns?

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You know, I’ve watched this situation in the Gaza strip going on. I can be some what detached from it all as I don’t have any direct connection to either side of the conflict other than it being in the area of the Holy Land which is where the roots of my own faith are.

I don’t even begin to understand all that goes on there other than the emnity and hatred on both sides runs deep. I expect that just as there are those on both sides of the divide who believe the other side is absolutely the agressors there are those of goodwill who mere want to live their lives in peace.

The Palistinean group Hamas remains committed to the annihilation of Israel and ultimately the Jewish people. In many countries in the world, certainly in the west, Hamas is considered to be not a government but a terrorist group. For years they have used the Gaza strip to fire missles into Israel. They have also used Lebanon to do the same.

Eventually Israel responds by bombing and invading in an effort to shut down the supply of missles and dismantle Hamas. When they do it, the world erupts in furor at the heavy handedness and appeals to Israel the halt the ensuing deaths of civilians and the loss of their homes, businesses and infrastructure.

I tend to wince at the civilian deaths and remind myself that Israel has a right to self-defense. If nothing else halts the missles except brute force then brute force it must be. Since it is becoming abundently clear that Israel deployed the use of phosphorous weapons in this campaign that there needs to be clear and unequivacol condemnation of the use of those weapons.

Having a right to self defense doesn’t give anyone the right to use such horrific weapons. In many ways the use of phosphorus is not a very far leap from the use of nuclear weapons. Is the world going to wait until the ante gets upped and it’s too late?

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I started this post yesterday but my site went down, then I had to go to work and time shifted by until yesterday’s post is now today’s. c’est la vie!

Well, the world watched as Obama took the oath of office to become the 44th American President. I don’t normally follow American politics beyond the most basic information. The Americans are after all, the next door neighbour to my own country and what happens there has an effect on Canada. Do I hang on their every sneeze, no, as small as our little boys in Ottawa are, they are the ones who truly impact my life.

I watched fascinated and almost unable to believe what I was watching as the first black American took the reigns of power. I’ve said it before in these pages, I never ever thought it would be possible for that to happen in the USA of all places in my life time. This man is a man like no other, of any colour.

Obama has a charisma about him that Americans liken to Kennedy (who was around before I was aware of the world) and for Canadians, we’ve not seen anything similar since the days of Trudeau. His skilled oratory, his willingness to take a stand, his humanity transcends colour or race. The question now is, will he have the fortitude and force of will to take the actions that are needed to meet his bold oratory?

Already, the American people seem to be responding to him. They seem to be standing a bit taller, their hope up higher than they have been in months, or years. Hopes that not only will the US be viewed with less contempt by some on the world stage after eight years of Bush but that with them all pulling together they can indeed rise above the economic maelstrom that has engulfed them.

Obama has moved boldly on his first day in office by bringing at least a 120 day halt to the trials getting underway at Gitmo, freezing salaries of his senior staff and setting strict lobbying rules. He’s now signed an executive order to bring about the closing of Gitmo within a year. His critics will be watching closely to see how that is carried out and the current inmates dealt with.

Meanwhile up here, in the great white north, Canadians can only watch the little boys on Parliament Hill as they play their petty politics while our economy shudders and starts to sink. We can but hope that some of them, any of them, are watching closely what is going on to the south and actually get the clue that Canada deserves better than their behaviour.

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In a surprising nod to the march of time, Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba yesterday. Castro and Cuba have just always been in my life. I was just four months old when he wrested power and became dictator of the island.

Aligning his country with the Soviet bloc, Castro stood up to anything the US, and in particular the American CIA, threw at him. Of course, that was in the days before the fall of the Soviets and the era of making up excuses to invade countries to topple their leaders. Castro might not have fared well in today’s world climate.

Castro’s health has been deteriorating since at least the 1990s and became more profound in 2006 when he temporarily turned power over to his brother Raul. The exact nature of his illness wasn’t disclosed but he’s been rarely seen in public since then. His brother is his designated successor but it is expected that Fidel will remain a strong influence in the politics of Cuba.

Canada has maintained official diplomatic relations with Cuba since 1945. Engaging in what Ottawa terms as “constructive engagement”. We carry on political and economic relations with Cuba while addressing concerns about human rights violations and democratic freedoms.

How effective has our constructive engagement been? Probably not a lot but then neither has the American’s 45+ year total embargo of any trade with Cuba. Castro and Kennedy, one of 10 American administrations he has outlived, squared off in 1962 over the Soviets placing missiles in Cuba aimed at the US. For ten days the world held its breath while the spector of a nuclear exchange played out. In the end, the missiles were removed and the US pledged not to invade Cuba.

Dissent in Castro’s Cuba has been brutally repressed over the years prompting many to flee the island for places like the US and Canada. That repression is unlikely to change under the younger Castro. Raul is a different temperament than his brother, more low key in his approach to public life.

Raul is not that much younger than his brother at 76. Depending how much longer Fidel hangs in there and is a presence officially or unofficially in Cuban politics, Raul may end up being more an interim leader than a man fully in control.

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In a valiant effort to divert blame from himself or his cronies, Pakistan President Musharraf has come up with a theory for who to blame for the death of Benazir Bhutto…. it was her fault.

In an interview on the American TV show 60 Minutes Musharraf blamed Bhutto for her death because she choose to see and be seen amongst the people she was asking to support her run for Prime Minister.

The government has blamed a  warlord with ties to Al Qaeda for arranging her assassination. Many of Bhuttos supporters blame Musharraf and his officials for at minimum not providing sufficient security and at worse, actually conspiring to kill her.

BillW at Crooks and Liars reports on the interview with Sara Logan and provides links to either listen to or download the segment.

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Having escaped injury or death in a suicide bombing attack in October on a parade celebrating her return to Pakistan from exile Benazir Bhutto, has been assassinated. Reports from Pakistan indicate that Bhutto was shot in the chest and neck as the entered a vehicle following a rally in Rawalpindi. The attacker then blew himself up killing up to 20 others. Bhutto died a short time later at a local hospital.

Twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, she was the first female elected to lead a post-colonial Muslim state. Both of her tenures were ended by the Pakistani President of the time on charges of corruption. In 1998 she went into exile in Dubai until her return to Pakistan in October. She was running in the Pakistani elections due to be held January 8th.

Born in Karachi in 1953, Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the Prime Minister of Pakistan until he was dismissed on similar charges of corruption. He was later hanged by a military dictator. Bhutto completed her early education in Pakistan and went on to obtain degrees from Harvard University in the US and Oxford University in England.

She first came to power in Pakistan in 1988 at the age of 35 years old. Controversy seems to have surrounded much of her personal and political life.  Regardless of who is right or wrong, this assassination will likely spell civil unrest in Pakistan which is worrisome when our Canadian troops are fighting not that far away in the restive southern provinces of Afghanistan, not far from the Pakistani border.

We need to watch this situation very closely.

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