Danger Tours

Canadians are devoted to their winter getaways. Long self-lauding for our toughness in facing the extremes of Canadian winters, we are, at heart, a nation of snowbirds, anxious to depart the geography that brings us hot and humid summers and icy-cold, snow-swept, wind-chilling winters. It can be said that Canadians are quite simply intrepid travellers, curious about the world outside their own, particularly those that feature wide sandy beaches, clear skies and tropical sun.

If there are areas of the world famed for their exotic and exalted beauty, warm oceans featuring luxury hotels where the indigenous population can be seen only wearing service uniforms the better to service the needs of the Canadian high-rollers, there we are, luxuriating in the warmth and the rays of that golden orb, chuckling to ourselves about the plight of our more sedentary, winter-house-bound neighbours at home.

Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, are no doubt great places to view. For many, however, the very thought of ensconcing themselves on sun-warmed beaches sipping cocktails and 'chilling out', remains foreign to their values of living with what the natural world and the environment has gifted us with. These are the people who travel for the purpose of informing themselves, visiting other countries for a quick view of history, culture, art.

But for the diehard fans of sun, sea and endless white sand, Mexico seems to top the list. And Canadians will not be put off by the bloody drug-fuelled cartel wars that have gruesomely sacrificed the lives of ordinary Mexicans along with drug-gang members, Mexican police and public officials. Staying within the confines of safe, tourist areas far from the trouble-prone areas keeps them smug and happy.

And should hardy Canadian tourists be exposed to danger, to violent theft, to rape and to death, why it can happen to the unwary and the unfortunate but never, ever to themselves. The Government of Canada may issue its diplomatically carefully-worded travel alerts, and Canadian newspapers may be rife with stories of assaults and murders, but nothing comes between Canadians and their holidays.

Mexican hotels may be built in vulnerable terrain, may be shoddily constructed, may be negligent in their use of volatile gases and blow up, killing unfortunate tourists, but that's life, right? It may be dangerous to tread beyond the safe confines of restricted tourist areas, but problems can happen anywhere, right? A couple can return claiming to have been robbed, beaten and raped on vacation, but you can't believe everything you read, right?

Canadian tourism in Mexico has not declined, not a bit of it, despite the variety and prevalence of misfortunes Canadian tourists experience while enjoying themselves at the southern tip of our Continent. We want our leisure, our sun and our fun, and we want it when we want it, where we want it, and that's right too - right?

Seriously, Now...Peace!

Now that is absolutely wonderful.  Another peace conference.  One cannot conceivably entertain too many conferences devoted to the resonating subject of peace.  And where else than in Ottawa, the nation's capital?  Where concerned and considerate and not-too-well-informed, let alone -intentioned individuals have formed a quartet of dedicated concern to defuse misunderstandings between East and West.  More specifically, perhaps, the world of Islam and that of the West.  Since they seem, of late, to be at loggerheads, to put it mildly.

In that specific groups and individuals claiming to represent Islam have been violently attacking Western symbols, personages, institutions and populations in a not-in-vain effort to persuade those of the West that they are despised and hated.  While the West, for their part, are taken aback, startled out of their complacency, and attempt to protect themselves, by routing the presence of the violent Islamists in Muslim countries as well as those who have infiltrated into Western countries.  Thus the disaffection is mutual, but the methodology is quite opposite.

The stringency of the polarization of the two world views, ideologies, values and imperatives could not be more emphatically at odds.  Yet it is the world of Islam that blames the West for the situation, insisting that "Islamophobia" is at the heart of the matter.  While the West, given to reasonable discourse when all else fails, points out that it is not they who initiated and continue to initiate the bloody conflict, but those who represent Islam, and who quote zingers from the Koran and the Hadiths in support of violent jihad.

Now, here in Ottawa, there are four individuals, all of whom have been involved with one of Canada's (lesser-known and ballot-box-recognized political parties, the Greens) official opposition parties to the governing Conservatives, who have out of the goodness and breadth of their worldly perspective, mounted a conference on "just and sustainable peace", taking place at the Government Conference Centre.  Three featured guests represent academia from Tehran University.  With the keynote speaker being dean of the faculty of global studies at the university.

Panelist Davood Ameri is director general of the Islamic World Peace Forum, based in Tehran, a NGO with a website that reflects the worldview of the current Iranian administration.  Who better to speak of peace and conciliation between peoples than Iranians?  Particularly those who support Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reigning Ayatollahs?  It is a tragedy of immense proportions that the world misunderstands the intentions of the Islamic Republic of Iran which desperately desires peace and unification between diverse people, rejecting the misunderstandings that result from inadequately parsing the statements of Mr. Ahmadinejad.

No nuclear weapons, period.  For peaceful, civil use, nothing more.  The intention is to live in peace and harmony with its Middle East neighbours and the world at large.  How could they be judged otherwise?  The world has a frail sense of humour; standing in the United Nations addressing the General Assembly and introducing a few light words that sound like the intention of destroying 'the Zionist entity', just proves how gullible people are, how ready to accuse others of dangerously malicious intent.  When nothing could be further from the truth.

The conference is a legitimate affair, an attempt for cool, rational and intelligent heads to reach a consensus on peace initiatives.  Is not the highly respected Imam Zijad Delic, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress one of the moderators?  Is not RCMP Constable Wayne Russett, aboriginal and ethnic liaison outreach officer scheduled to attend this momentous event?  Despite the outrageous slur voiced by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews characterizing the Canadian Islamic Congress as an extremist group?

The entirely fallacious assumption that Iran is up to no good is untenable, has no relation to reality: for Tehran has no intention of expelling IAEA inspectors from its nuclear sites; has no intention of placing its ballistic missiles on a state of alert, along with that of the Syrian army.  Nor is there any intention of developing nuclear weapons, and nor is Hezbollah standing by for further orders to initiate a large-scale military exercise. Perish the very thought of such dangerously provocative events ever occurring; not on their watch.


Just incidentally, it appears that Nigeria has intercepted an Iranian shipment of 13 containers, which held rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives which were camouflaged as building materials.  The Nigerian National Security Adviser advised that his government intended to destroy the weapons.
It is speculated that this seized shipment was meant for transfer to Hamas in the Gaza Strip; a new attempt at a new smuggling route via Africa.  Previous such arms smuggled through Sudan to Gaza have been detected through international supervision auditing the cargo of Iranian ships.

	an illegal arms shipment seized by authorities in Lagos, Nigeria.
	Photo by: AP

In early 2009 there was a news report that the Israel Air Force had attacked a weapons convey being smuggled through Sudan into Gaza.  Later that same year the Israeli Navy boarded a vessel carrying tons of weapons from Iran to Syria, or Hezbollah in Lebanon.  This September an arms shipment from Iran to Syria was intercepted in the Italian port of Calabria.  Shortly after that an arms shipment headed to Syria from North Korea was captured in Greece.

Trifles, incidentals, meaning little.  The "Ottawa Group of Four", as they have named themselves, current and previous candidates for the Green Party, Paul Maillet ,Qais Ghanem, Akbar Manoussi and Sylvie Lemieux, deserve to be recognized for the good peace-seeking souls that they are.  Honouring Canadian soil and values by inviting Iranian scholars to speak on the subject so dear to the hearts of all of us.  Peace in our time.

Drug Terror

It seems that drug lords and Islamist jihadists have much in common in their vicious penchant for remorseless blood-letting. Little wonder that in countries like Afghanistan tribal warlords and Islamists both find involvement with opiate drugs irresistible to fund their cause for domination of society, enabling them to continue their murderous course of targeting schoolgirls, their teachers, innocent passersby, and just about anyone who presents by chance as a victim to instruct those who defy them that there is honour in atrocities.

Mexico, on its way to becoming a viable North American state, achieving benefit from more open markets for trade and services with its continental partners, fell by the wayside, thanks to the imperatives of drug trafficking. When a dread cancer is in the process of establishing itself, its presence must be identified and swiftly eradicated. Given the opportunity through lack of attention and due diligence it will thrive, metastasize, and corrupt the body in which it resides.

In Mexico now, no one is safe. Not ordinary, uninvolved civilians who just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time, nor police, nor federal agents, nor armed troops, or even government ministers are safe from heedless slaughter. Police chiefs of towns which have been infested by drug dealers become society's first-line defence in the past tense if they refuse to avert their attention from these predators.

Horror stories of mass killings by drug gangs have resulted in seven thousand deaths, along with torture, decapitations, bodies hanging in public view, or found at roadsides commonly seen atrocities. Mexico's government has deployed almost 50,000 troops in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood and drugs. In that order, or any other; some cessation of each would suffice to indicate a modest but welcome modicum of success.

But there is no relief in sight. The drug lords and their gangs simply move on and forward in their determination to utterly destroy civil society for the greater good of their freedom to distribute illicit drugs. It is their will to wallow in the proceeds of moving drugs. Which will, for the most part, destroy lives in greater abundance than their law-and-life-mocking attacks on law enforcement in the country.

The most warped mind would be challenged to visualize more brutal scenarios of utter disinterest in the value of human life. These gangs represent a barbaric throwback to a time in the dim history of the world when roving psychopaths had few organized entities to halt their conscienceless attacks on people, robbing them of their lives and their worldly possessions.

A successful raid by special forces marines that placed a boss of a major drug cartel permanently out of commission, and which also saw the death during that operation of special forces marine Melquisdet Angulo saw him praised as a hero by the Mexican navy. His naming had dire consequences. Following his funeral, when his family were gathered in the family home they experienced a surprise visit.

Gunmen firing assault rifles broke down the door of the home with a sledgehammer and shot everyone in the home to death. His mother will no longer stand as a beneficiary of a lifelong government pension as a tribute to her son's bravery in confronting the druglord and his vassals.

From Warm Relations To Hot Water

Guadalajara will be the scene of some interesting discussions between the "Three Amigos" of North America this week-end. One way or another, all three countries have managed to cause some level of disgruntlement between one another. Canada has offended Mexico by launching a bit of a visa requirement bombshell for the purpose of making it more difficult for Mexican economic migrants to claim refugee status in Canada.

The United States has offended Canada, Mexico and its other trading partners by invoking a "Made in America" clause associated with infrastructure projects related to its huge economic stimulus package, ruffling the financial feathers of its closest trading partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Coming at a time when finances everywhere are in a fairly fragile state, requiring the finesse of co-operation not alienation between partners.

And the United States is also being pressed by Mexico to fully release the pledged support promised to President Felipe Calderon's administration in anti-narcotics aid. Mexico's three-year-old battle with increasingly-bold and hideously violent drug cartels appears to be going nowhere but deeper into the depths of vicious lawlessness. The ten thousand troops Mexico has deployed, along with countless police units, have been unable to stop the deadly drug wars.

Needless to say, beyond the anti-drug equipment and training in a $1.4-billion plan promised by the previous administration, the population of the United States is also responsible in part of encouraging the Mexican drug trade, as steady and reliable clients. It is fully as much in the interests of the United States as it is Mexico's to extend an all-out effort to exert control over the drug gangs.

As for Canada's little problems, Mexico hints at retaliation; that it too can impose visa requirements on the vast numbers of Canadian tourists visiting that country yearly. As if. Not likely Mexico is ready to curtail the avails of its lucrative tourism industry by imposing visa restrictions on Canadians. But perhaps another kind of agreement could be worked out, for Mexico to vet potential Mexican refugee seekers to Canada and crack down on unscrupulous brokers urging Mexicans to seek asylum.

President Obama can expect to have some interesting discussions with Prime Minister Stephen Harper who has provincial premiers pushing and shoving at his back to inform the United States that their "Buy American" legislation doesn't sit very well with their largest trading partner, and next-door neighbour. Bringing the message back to Washington may not increase Mr. Obama's popularity among the protectionist Democratic Congress.

On the other hand, it's in everyone's best interests to restore that warm and fuzzy feeling that all three experience when they're in accord on matters of import to all three countries. They'll give it a good go, reasonable people all. Ho-ho.

Security and Prosperity Summit:

April 21, 2008
Dear Member of Congress,
On the occasion of the 4th Leaders Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), to be held in New Orleans on April 21-22, we take this opportunity to call on all members of Congress to educate themselves on the SPP, which was never brought to Congress for debate or vote. Our concerns include the opaque and undemocratic nature of the SPP, its definition of “prosperity” as the expansion of a failed trade model, and its definition of “security” as the expansion of military force and the restricting of civil liberties.
Congress has been entrusted with oversight on such issues of trade and security. It is imperative that they exercise their responsibility on this matter by examining what prosperity and security really mean. Rather than proceeding along the failed path of NAFTA, all efforts should be made to implement a trade agenda that focuses on the needs of communities and people. That agenda should include the voices of those populations most affected, as well as their advocates in civil society.
Therefore, as civil society advocates, we call upon the U.S. Congress to:
0. Require the Bush administration to immediately halt SPP implementation and submit the process to Congressional oversight.
0. Hold congressional hearings in which the process and goals of the SPP are thoroughly aired and input is invited from a broad cross-section of the public.
Make subject to congressional vote the decision of whether SPP implementation should proceed.
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/security-and-prosperity-partnership-open-letter-to-congress/#more-105

Immigration and starving the poor: Chomsky

Starving the Poor
By Noam Chomsky
The International News

Wednesday 16 May 2007

The chaos that derives from the so-called international order can be painful if you are on the receiving end of the power that determines that order’s structure. Even tortillas come into play in the ungrand scheme of things. Recently, in many regions of Mexico, tortilla prices jumped by more than 50 per cent.

In January, in Mexico City, tens of thousands of workers and farmers rallied in the Zocalo, the city’s central square, to protest the skyrocketing cost of tortillas.

In response, the government of President Felipe Calderon cut a deal with Mexican producers and retailers to limit the price of tortillas and corn flour, very likely a temporary expedient.

In part the price-hike threat to the food staple for Mexican workers and the poor is what we might call the ethanol effect — a consequence of the US stampede to corn-based ethanol as an energy substitute for oil, whose major wellsprings, of course, are in regions that even more grievously defy international order.

In the United States, too, the ethanol effect has raised food prices over a broad range, including other crops, livestock and poultry.

The connection between instability in the Middle East and the cost of feeding a family in the Americas isn’t direct, of course. But as with all international trade, power tilts the balance. A leading goal of US foreign policy has long been to create a global order in which US corporations have free access to markets, resources and investment opportunities. The objective is commonly called “free trade,” a posture that collapses quickly on examination.

It’s not unlike what Britain, a predecessor in world domination, imagined during the latter part of the 19th century, when it embraced free trade, after 150 years of state intervention and violence had helped the nation achieve far greater industrial power than any rival.

The United States has followed much the same pattern. Generally, great powers are willing to enter into some limited degree of free trade when they’re convinced that the economic interests under their protection are going to do well. That has been, and remains, a primary feature of the international order.

The ethanol boom fits the pattern. As discussed by agricultural economists C Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, “the biofuel industry has long been dominated not by market forces but by politics and the interests of a few large companies,” in large part Archer Daniels Midland, the major ethanol producer. Ethanol production is feasible thanks to substantial state subsidies and very high tariffs to exclude much cheaper and more efficient sugar-based Brazilian ethanol. In March, during President Bush’s trip to Latin America, the one heralded achievement was a deal with Brazil on joint production of ethanol. But Bush, while spouting free-trade rhetoric for others in the conventional manner, emphasized forcefully that the high tariff to protect US producers would remain, of course along with the many forms of government subsidy for the industry.

Despite the huge, taxpayer-supported agricultural subsidies, the prices of corn — and tortillas — have been climbing rapidly. One factor is that industrial users of imported US corn increasingly purchase cheaper Mexican varieties used for tortillas, raising prices.

The 1994 US-sponsored NAFTA agreement may also play a significant role, one that is likely to increase. An unlevel-playing-field impact of NAFTA was to flood Mexico with highly subsidised agribusiness exports, driving Mexican producers off the land.

Mexican economist Carlos Salas reviews data showing that after a steady rise until 1993, agricultural employment began to decline when NAFTA came into force, primarily among corn producers — a direct consequence of NAFTA, he and other economists conclude. One-sixth of the Mexican agricultural work force has been displaced in the NAFTA years, a process that is continuing, depressing wages in other sectors of the economy and impelling emigration to the US.

It is, presumably, more than coincidental that President Clinton militarised the Mexican border, previously quite open, in 1994, along with implementation of NAFTA.

The “free trade” regime drives Mexico from self-sufficiency in food towards dependency on US exports. And as the price of corn goes up in the United States, stimulated by corporate power and state intervention, one can anticipate that the price of staples may continue its sharp rise in Mexico.

Increasingly, bio fuels are likely to “starve the poor” around the world, according to Runge and Senauer, as staples are converted to ethanol production for the privileged — cassava in sub-Saharan Africa, to take one ominous example. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, tropical forests are cleared and burned for oil palms destined for bio fuel, and there are threatening environmental effects from input-rich production of corn-based ethanol in the United States as well.

The high price of tortillas and other, crueler vagaries of the international order illustrate the interconnectedness of events, from the Middle East to the Middle West, and the urgency of establishing trade based on true democratic agreements among people, and not interests whose principal hunger is for profit for corporate interests protected and subsidised by the state they largely dominate, whatever the human cost.