World Politics – Page 16 – Babel-on-the-Bay

Let the games begin. Please.

February 9, 2014 by Peter Lowry

What do ballet, the opening ceremonies at the Sochi Winter Games and Russian winters have in common? They are too long, too dreary and too boring. You almost expected to see a camera shot of President for Life Putin fast asleep. And the silliest expectation was the Russians giving the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge a script to explain what was going on in the centre ring of the arena. Not only was his timing off but his reading would have been more appropriate for a funeral.

And who says the Olympics are not political? They have been politicized since Athens first challenged Sparta. How soon we forget the games in Berlin of 1936! Every country tries to make a political statement. Only the Brits would host an Olympics with the only apparent objective of boosting tourism. And they made fun of themselves without hurting others. President for Life Putin would never understand that.

But what is with all of this silly emphasis on medals? Whatever happened to sportsmanship? If some other country gets one more medal than Canada, good on them. We come to honour the athletes not their countries. All this crap about “owning the podium” is unsporting, callow and a disgrace to the games. Putting such undue extremes of pressure on our athletes is unhealthy and unwarranted. And we should put a stop to this jingoism of raising the country flag and playing the national anthems of the athletes just because Julian beat Harry by two-tenths of a second.

The athletes who really do not need to remind anyone where they are from are the Americans. Those costumes they wore in the opening were hilarious. They not only lost the fashion race but they gave the world a good laugh—which is always welcome.

The fashion police probably gave the gold medal in costuming to the understated French. Try as we can though, there is no way to admit that khaki and grey are compatible. At least our Canadians looked like dismounted Mounties in toques. They had fun.

When Catherine the Great decided that Russia would expand its domain to the Black Sea, it was assumed that she just wanted a dacha there to get away from Moscow winters. It is an unusual place for Olympic Winter Games. Mind you at $50 billion for almost getting things ready, President for Life Putin has sure beaten Catherine’s bills.

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Harper can skate backwards.

September 2, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Do you feel that you have been getting mixed messages from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) lately? It is like watching a fast-paced hockey game. The puck and the teams keep changing ends. From a hawkish stance a week ago, we are now seeing a more reticent Prime Minister and PMO staff. It seems that war with Syria has moved to a back burner. And it was not cooler heads in Canada that made the difference. It was the combination of a vote in the British Parliament and a smart move by U.S. President Barack Obama.

After all, how could an Anglophile such as Harper be condoning a war against Syria when the Mother of Parliaments has voted against it? The fact that a group of Tory backbenchers voted against Brit Prime Minister David Cameron’s wanting to retaliate against Syria changed positions in other parts of the world.

What was thought to be a fait accompli earned an overnight note of caution. The dogs of war were given a time out. President Obama was forced to spread the blame. Losing such an important ally as Great Britain carried with it a note of caution. What, he reasoned, might work is to force the Republicans in his impossible Congress to face their supporters and either go along with him against the Syrians or give him a way out.

His solution is to take Syrian reprisal for using chemical weapons to Congress. Let them authorize it. If they say yes, he is vindicated and goes to war without sanction of the United Nations or his European allies. If the Congress says no, he has kept his word and it is Congress’ fault that he could not carry out the promised reprisals. This is a win-win for Obama.

And what is Harper going to do? His mouthpiece Andrew MacDougall tells the media that Mr. Harper is going to speak severely to Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit next week. This is if the Russian President will give him an audience. One would expect that at any private meeting, the Russian bear is going to listen to Harper impatiently while the Canadian explains the situation as he sees it in Syria. He also intends to complain about Russia’s treatment of homosexuals. When he is finished his statement, Putin is liable to growl: “So what are you going to do about it, sweet cheeks?”

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The Hair is hawkish on war.

August 29, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Is war just a telephone call away? Is it that simple? Can the Canadian Prime Minister just call up the President of the United States and say, “It’s okay. You can go to war with Syria. Canada is behind you. In fact, since we are hiding behind you, you might just say we have your back. Can we make sandwiches? Or knit socks for the troops?”

If President Obama is really serious about showing Syria’s al-Assad regime that chemical warfare cannot be tolerated by the civilized world, he has to move as soon as the proper proof is available. If the U.S. and its European and Israeli allies do not have sufficient assets on the ground and eyes in the skies to report thoroughly on this, they are not serious in seeking peace in the Middle East.

Building this tension for war smacks of the flimflam about weapons of mass destruction that led up to the Second Iraq War. More days of delay are questionable and it is obvious that the scientific evidence is quickly degraded. The longer the delays, the more questionable is the punishment. If Obama waits until after the meetings in Russia next week, he might as well send troops to Damascus to publicly spank Bashar al-Assad and his generals. Are there many other options available after weeks of warning?

While the West prepares, Syria can move its airplanes to hardened cover. Ammunition dumps and troop concentrations can be dispersed. And they have already assured al-Assad that they are not aiming at him.

It has been obvious for some time that the U.S. and its allies are supplying the rebels in Syria. The rebels have just not had the tanks, training and leadership they need to topple the oppressive al-Assad regime.

But hawks like the Hair are missing the more serious point. If al-Assad falls, who takes over? Would the West not be trading one oppressive regime for another? While people rejoiced at the Arab Spring, nobody liked the Arab Summer.

Rather than egging on Obama in his revenge for chemical attacks, what Canada should be doing is working on the diplomatic front to convince al-Assad to make accommodation with the rebels. Surely he is not so foolish as to continue to want his country destroyed.

Let those involved in the chemical warfare business resolve their issues. Canada can show leadership for peace.

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Parsing Noblesse Oblige.

July 23, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Travelling around the world building linkages and creating cooperation in the world-wide research effort to cure multiple sclerosis was an eye-opener in terms of understanding charity. In North America, we have built our own model of noblesse oblige. It is quite different from the European version. Europe built from antiquity. North America built from need. And then there are the countries where charity has been politicized.

Politicizing charity is dangerous when you allow a charity to be co-opted for political purpose. We have that problem at the local level here in Babel with the Conservative Member of Parliament. He is one of Stephen Harper’s drones. He has no use in Ottawa where he is something of an errand boy for cabinet members—to ask the softball questions in Parliament, to extend debate and vote as told. It is in his ignorance and lack of having something to do that he uses local charities in Babel for self promotion. It harms the charities when he loses interest and involvement, it costs them supporters who resent this political intrusion and it creates false expectations among those the charity is supporting.

And politicians have little or no understanding of noblesse oblige. The interpretation in Europe is literal. It is accepted as an obligation. It is not charity. It is a requirement of society. You ignore the obligation at the risk of censure by your peers. There are funny offshoots of this. In Germany, for example, many of the charities are run and staffed by women. It is considered women’s work. This goes back to feudal times when the lord of the manor ran the farm and his women ministered to the serfs.

In North America, we replaced the nobles with business executives. The oligarchical structure of business and professions made them the logical hunting ground for organizational talent and influence. The only difference was that it was cast in the moral imperative instead of as an obligation of birth or class.

What has also happened over the years is that this involvement has filtered down in business and young people who might not be sought out as a source of funds are volunteering judiciously for select charities to add the information to their resumes. What is good for the boss is good for the page seeking promotion to knighthood.

The glues that link these nobles and pages of business are the people who care. These are people who understand the problem. They often know through first-hand experience, living with or knowing people whom the charity has been created to help. Many of the health charities of today came into existence because of the frustration of these people in seeking aid for those afflicted.

This growing support for charities in North America has taken charity into being a big business sector in itself. It is a major source of employment, of funding for research and of funding for support systems in our society. The concept of noblesse oblige has come a long way.

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Standing by in Britain and South Africa.

July 6, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Watching a network promotion on Global Television the other day, we learned the details of the network’s royal baby watch in England. The watch is orchestrated under the aegis of the network’s Entertainment Tonight program. This is the program that is constantly promoted on the network’s newscasts for those concerned about the gossip of the courtesans and glitterati of Hollywood and beyond.

But then the news switched to the story of the death watch in South Africa for that nation’s Nelson Mandela. South Africans are torn in awaiting news of their former president. At 94, he is failing in health and stamina. As much as they wish him well, many of his people recognize that his time has ended. It makes an interesting counterpoint to the watch in England.

You cannot help but think of the remarkable achievement of Mandela in uniting his country in a bloodless revolution. After decades of mistreatment by the former regime, Mandela displayed forgiveness and transitioned his country to a one-man one-vote democracy. He inspired a country, a continent and the rest of the world.

And what have any of the royals done for you lately? In England, they at least lend some pomp and ceremony to tourism. They launch ships and open shopping malls. They lend their names to charities. Other than that, they are drones, living off Brit society on a permanent dole. It is nice that a couple of the kids have learned to fly helicopters for the Brit military but there are many qualified Brits who could do the job for less.

Think of Nelson Mandela and the leadership he gave his people and compare that to any royal from the last 400 years. Back then kings and queens and tribal leaders lasted as long as they led their subjects to better hunting grounds.

Why Canadians would have the time of day for any royal, lord or lady, we have never figured out. In a democratic society, it is the people who excel in their endeavours whom we respect. Be they leaders in politics, in the community, in helping others, in business, in education, in the arts, we respond to them for their achievements, their ideas, their compassion for others and being, ahead of anything else, a good citizen.

In Canada, we must learn to honour those who are the best among our citizens. There is no higher rank.

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But how was Harper’s golf score?

June 19, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Hopefully, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a better golf score than German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It really does not make sense for the world leaders to meet at a golf course in Northern Ireland and not play a round. Surely they all know that all work and no play makes Johnny dull.

Not that it started well. Can you imagine Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper trying to tweak the tail of the Russian Bear? Vladimir Putin of Russia is not a guy to trifle with. His various opponents in Russia will all tell you (from Siberia) that he does not mess around. Mind you, Putin probably realizes that Harper is working on his 2015 re-election campaign and he understands the silly posturing. You have to admit that it is ridiculous for Harper to beat his breast and demand Putin stop supporting the regime in Syria. What is Harper going to do about it?

What people might not understand about these G8 meetings is that the 33 page Memo of Understanding released at the end of the meeting had been written by the diplomats long before the actual meeting took place. The meeting of the leaders is mainly ceremonial. It seals the deal—such as it is.

You have to assume that President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron would be the best golfers. They would also have the savvy to know that the best place for a real conversation would be in a random sand trap on the tenth fairway. Here they are surrounded by razor wire, Scotland Yard and the British Army and there is no privacy even in the washrooms.

Judging by the obligatory group photograph from the event, it must be the gloomiest, ugliest golf course in Northern Ireland. Originally everyone was saying this meeting was in Dublin but with the Brits as host, that would hardly be appropriate. And there was no way the Brits would spend any money gussying-up Belfast for the event. After seeing the bollix that Harper made of things at the Toronto G20, a barricaded golf course made perfectly good sense.

You knew it was an informal meeting of the world leaders because all the men had taken off their ties. The fact that no fashion expert seems to have explained office casual to Germany’s Angela Merkel did tend to spoil the group picture.

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Harper failing at foreign affairs.

September 10, 2012 by Peter Lowry

What can you say about Canada’s relations with the rest of the world? Will we ever be able to dig our reputation out of the dumper where Prime Minister Harper and the Bobbsey twins have taken us?

It was bad enough when Stephen Harper let Flossie Bobbsey (a.k.a. Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird) lose us a seat on the Security Council. It was bad enough when Stephen Harper allowed Freddie Bobbsey (a.k.a. Jason Kenny, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) to put the screws to refugee claimants. The one-two punch of Harper’s Bobbsey twins is enough to destroy any country’s reputation.

And the Iran affair is beyond belief. Can you imagine a foreign affairs minister of any country to be so rude as to announce the breaking of relations with an unrelated country at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit? Why on earth would Canada’s foreign affairs guy do the deed when in Vladivostock, Russia? This is a gathering of some of the most powerful leaders in the world and if he had just farted, it would be glossed over.

But you cannot gloss over an announcement that had obviously been in the works for a while. This had been decided while Prime Minister Harper and Baird were in Ottawa. It had its roots in the recent visit to Ottawa of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This was the favour Netanyahu had come to Ottawa to ask.

It is hardly a gesture that does any good for Canada. It harms our reputation as peacekeeper. It smears our reputation for fairness. If it were necessary, it would only follow a long series of speeches and negotiations at the United Nations. For this act to be carried out, there had to be far more grievous concerns than are already evidenced. Is Harper copying George W. Bush with his fictitious ‘weapons of mass destruction’?

If Canada had the money and organization and the smarts to field its own Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it still would not have enough eyes and ears in Iran to replace our diplomats. Our embassy in Tehran might have seemed useless but it was a gesture that we were willing to listen. Only idiots stop listening.

Prime Minister Harper is micro-managing the Canadian government into foreign affairs positions where we should not go. Is he so keen to destroy the reputation we once had?

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Canada cursed in Kandahar.

July 16, 2012 by Peter Lowry

They no longer think kindly of Canada in Kandahar. The Canadians have left the building. Their promises no longer heard.

Oh, they marched so bravely up the Khyber Pass (figuratively) past the Pashtun tribes of Pakistan into the reality of the Pashtun peoples of Afghanistan. The image of the Canadian soldiers following the skirl of the bagpipes up the pass gives death time to mark those who would be his.

Turn the clock back 200 years and those are British troops marching up the pass. They marched up the pass to make the world safe for the growing of the opium poppy on the Northern Frontier of India—now Pakistan. The British East India Company had ready markets in China for opium back then and the safety of the growing fields was important.

Little has changed in the succeeding 200 years. The Afghans have learned to live on the rations of foreign troops and the opium poppy crop in the country has become the largest in the world. Only under the Taliban has the opium poppy crop been reduced but they became the enemy when they would not turn over Osama bin Laden to the Americans.

Despite the efforts of foreign troops in Afghanistan to kill off the Taliban, there are ample new recruits for them in the Madrassas of Pakistan. These religious colleges are indoctrination centres producing a steady stream of zealots eager to smite the infidels in the name of the Prophet. And the profits of the drug trade pay for their weapons.

In the ten years of Canadian military taking part in active fighting duty in Afghanistan, nothing has been accomplished. Soldiers have died. Pashtun fighters have died. The drug trade continues. The Afghan warlords stay in power. Nothing is resolved.

Canada also has shipping containers full of materiel for its troops left behind in Afghanistan. Trucking this materiel to Karachi in Pakistan for shipment to Canada will take much time and many bribes. Luckily, the Chief of the Defence Staff tells us there is nothing essential in the containers.

And, oh yes, we should also mention that the Americans started the current war against the Afghan people because the Taliban in Afghanistan would not give up Osama bin Laden. The Americans attacked and removed the Taliban and established a group of warlords in their place. As for Osama bin Laden, he was killed by some U.S. Navy Seals and C.I.A. operatives on May 2, 2011. He was hiding in his home in Pakistan.

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Stephen Harper is doing Europe.

June 7, 2012 by Peter Lowry

After going to London to fete Her Majesty in her Diamond Jubilee, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has climbed back aboard his military Airbus A310 and headed for the next capital on his European tour. Paris can be quite lovely in June, before the summer invasion of tourists. It is also a good time this year to get a reading on the new French President François Hollande.

The bad news is that Harper has his work cut out for him in trying to convince François Hollande of anything. Hollande is a socialist—which says it all as far as Stephen Harper is concerned. The first socialist in power in 17 years, in his first month in the Elysée Palace, Holland has already stated that his government will lower the retirement age for some French workers from 62 to 60. This is at a time when Mr. Harper is telling older Canadians that they better suck it up as they will not be able to draw old-age security until they are 67.

Mr. Harper brings a message to Hollande that has already been stated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Both leaders have said that Europe requires a strong political union to function effectively. Merkel made the point as early as this Thursday morning in Europe that the Eurozone countries have to give up more power. “We need not just a currency union; we also need a so-called fiscal union, more common budget policies. And we need above all a political union,” she said.

Mr. Harper said that the European members of the Eurozone will have to come up with a plan to make this happen. It is his opinion that Europe is a ‘half-done project’ that lacks the tools to get the job done. He said that he told Hollande that there needs to be quick action when the two met for breakfast. The French President was probably too much of a gentleman to tell the media what he said in return.

The only problem with the Harper-Merkel scheme is that many in Europe are contemplating that what the German armies could not accomplish in two world wars is now supposed to be as simple as a signature on a piece of paper.

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The threat of American intransigence.

May 3, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Former New Brunswick Premier and former Ambassador to Washington Frank McKenna came to Babel the other day. He told a rapt audience of TD Bank customers about the two greatest threats to world peace and prosperity. From the way he explained the two scenarios, it was hard to say which was worse.

Since the concern about Iran is over nuclear weapons controlled by a theocracy (a country ruled by religion), he gave top billing to the Persians. People in the west do not appreciate the capabilities of Iran and believe the nuclear threat is a long way away. The problem is that Iran can easily turn off the tap on about 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply by simply closing the Strait of Hormuz. The United States would be the country hardest hit by that embargo and that country would have to go to war with Iran. In turn, America’s ally, Israel, would be bombed into a nuclear wasteland unless Israel can take out Iran’s nuclear capability first. It is a chilling story.

Luckily, McKenna believes the current peace feelers to the west from the Iranian leadership are genuine. He feels sure that tensions can be eased if the Iranians see the benefits in cooling the threats to their Middle East neighbours.

His other scenario offered fewer solutions. As the former ambassador to Washington, he is well tuned in to American politics. He sees the intransigence of American politicians as extremely serious. He explains that no matter who wins the White House, the House of Representatives or the Senate later this year, the parties will remain locked in vicious combat over taxes and spending. He sees the politicians as so entrenched in their ideological positions that they could cause a deadlock that would throw the U.S. and then the rest of the world into a bottomless recession.

He says Canada is being caught up in the U.S.problems whether we like it or not. At the same time, he sees Canadian politicians as far more flexible. He noted that we have a former New Democrat running the federal Liberal Party, a former Liberal running the New Democrats and Mr. Harper changing Canada into an oil producing country—if he can ever get the oil south to the Texas refineries or to the east or west coasts. Mr. Mckenna sees the pipeline problems as easily solved.

Mr. McKenna is obviously enjoying his role spreading sunshine for the bank. And the bank customers certainly enjoyed his presentation. He did it with humour and a confident delivery. We should also mention that the bank served coffee and cookies. The cookies were very good!

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