Dispatches from the culture front

Same-sex marriage no big deal

Note to Americans: Canada resolved the contentious issue four years ago and the sky did not fall.

Vancouver Sun: With almost four years having passed since we resolved the same-sex marriage question, it's hard to remember there was controversy in the first place. The debate wrapped up without drama. Parliament passed the Civil Marriage Act on June 28, 2005, Canadians said okay, and the country went back to its business.

Teenage pregnancies: UK, US, and Canada

The Globe and Mail: Britain has the second-highest rate in the developed world with 40.4 conceptions for each 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17. The US rate is highest, with 44 births registered for each 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. In Canada, teenage pregnancies are in sharp decline, having dropped to 11 for each 1,000 women aged 15 to 19.

Israel spying on Canada

Breaking the Taboo on Israel's Spying Efforts on the United States

Christopher Ketcham, Alternet: In 2004, the authoritative Jane's Intelligence Group noted that Israel's intelligence organizations "have been spying on the US and running clandestine operations since Israel was established."... 

The former deputy director of counterintelligence at FBI, Harry B. Brandon [said] that "the Israelis are interested in commercial as much as military secrets... Virtually the entire American telecommunications system is bugged by [Israeli-formed] companies with possible ties to Israel's eavesdropping agency."...

In 2000, the Canadian intelligence service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, conducted "a probe related to allegations that [Israeli] spies used rigged software to hack into Canada's top secret intelligence files," according to an article in the Toronto Star. Several sources in the US intelligence community told me the Canadians liaised with their American counterparts to try to understand the problem. 

According to the Bush administration official who spoke with me, "the Dutch also had some to the CIA very concerned about what the Israelis were doing with this." The Dutch intelligence service, under contract with Verint, "had discovered strange things were going on -- there was activity on the network, the Israelis uploading and downloading stuff out of the switches, remotely, and apparently using it for their own wiretap purposes. The CIA was very embarrassed to say, 'We have the same problem.' But the CIA didn't have an answer for them."

Image source here.

Afghanistan: the 'last frontier' to loot

McClatchy: Jalrez Valley, Afghanistan --

In this Taliban stronghold in the mountains south of Kabul, the US Army is providing the security that will enable China to exploit one of the world's largest unexploited deposits of copper...

A Western official, who asked not to be further identified so he could speak freely, [said] 'We expect to see more such competitions' over Afghanistan's huge untapped reserves of natural resources...

The site was discovered by an Afghan-Soviet team in 1974. However in the face of armed resistance during their 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan, the Soviets were never able to develop the site or harvest the ore...

China may hope that the Aynak deal will help position it to compete for more projects in Afghanistan, where three tectonic plates converge. The region is thought to hold some of the world's last major untapped deposits of iron, copper, gold, uranium, precious gems and other raw materials.

'It's the last frontier,' said the second Western official.

The US Geological Survey estimates that Afghanistan also has more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil -- almost untapped since soldiers of Alexander the Great discovered pools of oil in the north more than 2,000 years ago -- and 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Image source here.

Last night

Bach's Six Brandenburg Concertos

Richard Egarr & the Academy of Ancient Music

At the Orpheum Theatre

Sponsored by Early Music Vancouver

Image source here.

IMF says Canada 'has more resilience'

Canada faces harsher downturn, IMF warns

The Toronto Star: The International Monetary Fund says Canada is 'better placed than many countries' but its economy will still likely suffer more intensely in the near term amid 'the rapid deterioration in the global environment.'...

'Weakening global demand has prompted a retreat in commodity prices, with effects particularly on the western provinces. Global financial strains have also spilled over to Canada, although its financial system is faring better than many abroad.'

The IMF team found that Canada has more resilience than many other countries thanks to sound macroeconomic policy including past government debt reduction and low inflation. It also said national authorities responded quickly to the crisis, and the federal budget and stimulus package presented in January 'was large, timely, and well targeted, and it will buoy demand during the downturn.'

The report also noted that Canada's banks are well capitalized and have avoided the large losses experienced in other countries. 'Moreover, credit growth has held up well, and financial strains are markedly less serious than elsewhere.'

Israel border ambiguity 'license to kill'

Clinton, instead of promising us Palestine, create an Israeli state

Daily Star, Lebanon: Yes, the United States formally recognized Israel just 11 minutes after Zionists declared its creation on Palestinian land in 1948, and most other nations have since followed suit, but the Jewish state remains a nebulous entity because its exact borders have not yet been drawn. This territorial ambiguity has allowed Israel to continue with its endless expansion and conquest of Palestinian lands, resulting in new 'facts on the ground' that makes Palestine's creation increasingly impossible...

Clinton would do well to avoid repeating the mistakes of Bush and his predecessors by raising -- and then crushing -- the hopes of yet another generation of Arabs. Instead, she should work with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to nail down the exact borders of the state of Israel. Then at least Israel's egregious acts of expansion would be defined as taking place outside the Jewish state's borders. Maybe then the world would finally put an end to this crime.

The Guardian: Israel annexing East Jerusalem, says EU

BBC: Israel 'plans settlement growth'

AP: Israel seizes land for settlement expansion

BBC: Gaza homes destruction 'wanton'

Juan Cole, Informed Comment: Zionism is a form of nationalism centered on the necessity of turning Judaism into a base for a nation-state. Probably a majority of Jews, and virtually all American Jews, were offended by this notion before WWII. And although Zionists think they were vindicated by the events of the 1930s and 1940s, it is not at all clear in the 21st century that having a state makes you safe, or, just as important, adds to your well-being. Moreover, having a ethnically-based state is invidious (Jim Crow in the US was a form of white Protestant ethnic nationalism).

But in any case, Zionist nationalism isn't any different from any other nationalism (all nationalisms fetishize some marker or markers of identity, whether language, religion, folkways, etc.) and it doesn't deserve to be privileged in any way. Nationalism where healthy can be a sane form of patriotism and pride in the achievements of a people... but nationalism can also easily turn pathological... When nationalism turns pathological, it becomes an 00, license to kill.

Petition against Bush visit

Canada Must Bar or Prosecute George W. Bush

We the undersigned citizens and/or legal residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to abide by its own laws and to live up to agreements it has signed pertaining to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, and

1. bar George W. Bush from entering Canada for his announced visit to Calgary on March 17th or at any time in the future, or

2. arrest, charge and prosecute George W. Bush for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, or

3. arrest George W. Bush and transfer him to the International Court of Criminal Justice in the Hague, and

4. bar any other prior member of the Bush administration suspected of War Crimes or Crimes Against Humanity from entering Canada.

We also call upon the Calgary City Police and/or other police agencies operating under the Attorney General of the Province of Alberta to take all necessary steps to arrest George W. Bush and to enforce all relevant sections of the Criminal Code of Canada, as is your duty.

Lastly, we call upon the City of Calgary to publicly condemn the visit and its sponsors.

To sign petition, go here.

US outs Israel's nukes

US Army document describes Israel as 'a nuclear power'

Haaretz: In a rare breach of official American adherence to Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity, the US military is terming Israel 'a nuclear power' on a par with Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, all of which have declared their nuclear weapon status, and ahead of 'nuclear threshold powers' Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the 'emerging' Iran...

Israel's nuclear program is rarely, if ever, explicitly mentioned in public, unclassified US official documents. Classified assessments are usually published only years later, in response to Freedom of Information requests, in former officials' recollections or as part of historical research. It is virtually unheard of for a senior military commander, while in office, to refer to Israel's nuclear status.

In December 2006, during his confirmation hearings as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates referred to Israel as one of the powers seen by Iran as surrounding it with nuclear weapons. But once in office, Gates refused to repeat this allusion to Israel, noting that when he used it he was 'a private citizen.'

Image source: Israel's Nuclear Facilities

International Women's Day

Carry it on, sisters!

Image source here.

Whatever will make the Tories look good

Canada's naked international ambition

Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail: In the past, this country has sought and won seats on the [UN] Security Council as a means to something: an approach to peacekeeping, a nuclear-arms-control drive, a post-Cold War reconciliation.

This time, many international observers feel that the tail is wagging the dog. It looks to many as if Canada is using its few actions in the world -- our big sacrifice in Kandahar, our outspoken commitment to the prosecution of Sudanese leaders -- as pretexts for our aspiration to prominence in international institutions. Beyond that goal, our foreign policy seems to be one-dimensional and withdrawn...

If it were just the Security Council campaign, we might get away with it. But we're facing similar criticism over another big international campaign, the one to get Defence Minister Peter MacKay appointed in July as the next Secretary-General of NATO...

Canada's soldiers have suffered the highest casualty rates of any of the 42 countries fighting in Afghanistan. To suggest that they are making this sacrifice simply to win Mr. MacKay a job at NATO or to earn Canada a seat on the Security Council is insulting and completely incorrect. Unfortunately, the government is doing surprising little to prevent the world from coming to that conclusion.

Image source here.

Try to Praise the Mutilated World

Try to praise the mutilated world.

Remember June's long days,

and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.

The nettles that methodically overgrow

the abandoned homesteads of exiles.

You must praise the mutilated world.

You watched the stylish yachts and ships;

one of them had a long trip ahead of it,

while salty oblivion awaited others.

You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,

you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.

You should praise the mutilated world.

Remember the moments when we were together

in a white room and the curtain fluttered.

Return in thought to the concert where music flared.

You gathered acorns in the park in autumn

and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.

Praise the mutilated world

and the grey feather a thrush lost,

and the gentle night that strays and vanishes

and returns.

Adam Zagajewski

Translated by Renata Gorczynski

Vancouver lawyer vs. war criminal Bush

George W. Bush could face new torture charges

The Georgia Straight: A Vancouver lawyer says she plans to lay criminal charges against former US president George W. Bush when he visits Calgary on March 17. 'I'm going to attempt to initiate a private prosecution against him for torture,' [said] Gail Davidson, cofounder of Lawyers Against the War...

In a February 23 letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and four federal cabinet ministers, the group requested that Bush be denied entry into Canada in accordance with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Along with individuals, the act bars senior members of a government that has committed offences listed in the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act from entering the country. Torture is listed in the appendix to the act as a crime against humanity.

'An article recently published by a legal scholar has itemized 267 war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bush as president and commander-in-chief just in the invasion and occupation of Iraq alone,' Davidson said. 'But the only offence that Lawyers Against the War would concentrate on is torture.'

Davidson laid seven torture-related charges against Bush in Vancouver provincial court in 2004 while he was in the country on an official visit. Provincial court judge William Kitchen declared the charges a 'nullity' because Bush had immunity from prosecution as a sitting head of state.

Davidson noted that the BC Court of Appeal has ruled that a private prosecution of this nature cannot proceed to a first hearing without the consent of the federal attorney general, who is Robert Nicholson. 'We can assume that he won't,' she said. 'So the next step would be to take an application to the Federal Court of Canada seeking an order of mandamus compelling the attorney general to give his consent.'

Image source here.

Query for the day

If we can't win, why stay in Afghanistan?

Thomas Walkom, The Toronto Star: Today, it seems, there is no question in his mind. The Prime Minister of Canada thinks that a war in which Canadian soldiers are dying cannot be won. Period. 

What then are we doing there? Why wait until 2011 to pull out? 

Why not leave now?

Canada: 'highest per capita death rate'

Obama's Coalition

 of the Unwilling

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: Forty-one nations contribute to NATO's 56,000-troop presence in Afghanistan. More than half are from the US. The United Kingdom has 8,300 troops. Canada just under 3,000. Maintaining troops is costly, but the human toll is greater. Canada, with 111 deaths, has suffered the highest per capita death rate for foreign armies in Afghanistan, since its forces are based in the south around Kandahar, where the Taliban is strong...

Anand Gopal, Afghanistan correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, described the situation on the ground: 'A lot of Afghans that I speak to in these southern areas where the fighting has been happening say that to bring more troops, that's going to mean more civilian casualties. It'll mean more of these night raids, which have been deeply unpopular amongst Afghans... 

In the US media, there is an equating of fighting the war with fighting terrorism. Yet on the ground, civilian casualties lead to tremendous hostility. Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, recently told me: Those wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] are seen as occupations... I think it's very important we learn from mistakes of sounding war drums.'

Image source: The Globe and Mail