Jonathon Narvey's COMM CENTRE

jnarvey.com

2006-08-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

This blog has been moved. Jonathon Narvey continues to post at jnarvey.com

For those who care about these things, I moved my blog for two reasons: my URL was stupid and awkward and I wanted one that was short and easy to remember. Hence, the name switch. The new site looks a whole lot like the old one, but I plan on making a few improvements to it shortly. Enjoy.

Did I say vile? I meant, style...ish... yeah, that's it!

2006-08-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Canada's Liberal Party just keep taking flak for shooting their mouths off about the recent shooting war in the Middle East.

The latest casualty is Thomas Hubert, a local blogger and BC Young Liberal communications vice president, who wrote that "History will remember Hezbollah as an organization that stood up to the most vile nation in human history" and that Israel is "a state that survives on the blood of innocent people", among other things. He has since resigned his position and his website reads, "The longwalk.ca is currently under revision and restructuring. If any previous comments made on this blog were offensive to anyone, please accept the apologies of longwalk.ca."

Hubert is only 17, so he can and should be forgiven, assuming his apology is sincere (and there is no reason to suspect that it isn't). I believed a great number of stupid, offensive things at that age and no doubt would have published them had blogging been so easy in the early '90s. It's a terrible thing to have one's reputation tarnished before life really begins.

Sadly, the recent Hezbollah-Israel conflict is bringing out the worst in a lot of people (especially Liberals, it seems) who would otherwise have no motive or opportunity to shame themselves with their own ignorance.

As an aside, the idiots who started the war now claim they never even saw it coming. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the following in a TV interview aired today, "We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not."

Oops. Next time, think before launching rocket attacks and suprise raids on soldiers across a fortified border. Who knew that kind of stuff actually started wars?

tags: Liberal Party Canada, Hezbollah apologist, Thomas Hubert, anti-Israel bias, Sheik Nasrallah

Harper versus Ignatieff, Clinton versus Rice

2006-08-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Are we ready for the new faces of politics?

On Canada's own Maclean's magazine, Harper-lite Liberal leadership contender Michael Ignatieff looks like he's about to challenge the Prime Minister to a hockey-goon-style bust up. Meanwhile, Democratic former first lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton gazes up on the cover of Time smiling at something - no doubt, George W's approval ratings.

The juxtaposition of their mugs this week was interesting. The political opposition in both Canada and the US are both trying to recover from electoral disappointment in a modern electoral millieu where getting a percentage point or two more of the popular vote than last time can be decisive. The Democrats have squandered far more time getting their act together, but both Liberals and Democrats are currently suffering from a lack of clear leadership and inspirational policy.

I'll be keeping an eye on Ignatieff. It would be nice to have some election debates with candidates that don't have to rely on speech writers to formulate policy.

Looking to our southern neighbors, though, I have fond but faint hopes for a real contest in 2008: Hillary Clinton versus Condoleeza Rice.

Bill's ethical dissolution seems not to have hurt his wife's reputation. If anything, it casts Hillary in a comparatively purer light.

To an even greater extent, Condoleeza seems unaffected by the shadow of George Bush Jr.'s unpopularity, even as she has risen to become possibly the most powerful woman on the planet. The American Secretary of State and chief diplomat reportedly is closer to Bush than anyone. Her teflon status could be a very advantageous talent should she choose to preserve some continuity between administrations by throwing her hat into the ring.

With a minority parliament, Canadians will likely run through the election mill before our US cousins. That contest will be exciting enough on its own. But when Americans go to the polls, I'm looking forward to seeing a woman running the White House - no matter which party gets elected.

tags: political ambition, Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper, Hillary Clinton, Condoleeza Rice

Hedy Fry and the Liberals awry... oh, my!

2006-08-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know why it still surprises me that Liberal politicians think Canadians are idiots.

The latest insult to our collective intelligence comes from Vancouver MP Hedy Fry, who popped a plain brochure into my mailbox some time today. Evidently, she's been taking some flak about the Liberals' waffling policy as regards Canada's Afghanistan mission.

"The Liberal Opposition recognizes the need for Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan and supports their continued presence in the country to establish peace and security," she writes. Of course, she would have to say that; our Afghanistan mission began under a Liberal Prime Minister.

But then she goes stupid on us. "However, as we send them out to protect and ensure the freedom and human rights of others, we have a responsibility to make sure that they are not sent into areas of unnecessary risk." In other words, Liberals are all for sending troops into war zones to protect innocent people from fanatical killers - just so long as our troops don't actually risk taking casualties ourselves.

Keep our forces locked away in some bunker in Kabul while the Taliban takes over the rest of the country - and get out before the bad guys are strong enough to try for the capital again. There's the Liberal strategy for winning the peace.

Hedy Fry and her Liberal conspirators are only fooling themselves if they think they can skirt both sides of this issue.

If any other Vancouverites are interested in giving Ms. Fry their opinion on this issue, her email address is fryh@parl.gc.ca

In the meantime, I'm soooooo looking forward to the next brochure.

tags: Hedy Fry, Liberal Party of Canada, waffling foreign policy, Maginot Line

Straight from the source's mouth

2006-08-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

A report out of the Washington Post indicates that Canada will benefit from the onset of global warming. In particular, Vancouverites can look forward to a mob of new tourists wanting something a little less stifling than forty-degree vacations in Cancun. Is this the big break the local tourism industry has been waiting for?

Sadly, the article is only another example of poor journalism repeating unproven - wacky, actually - claims by dumb jerks posing as real professionals.

The "experts" in question are suggesting that Canada's tourism industry will get a 220 per cent boost in tourism as our average temperature rises, at the expense of temperate countries like Mexico that will become intolerable, sweat-soaked salt lands. That sounds super, until one reads that the economists' projected three-degree rise is predicted to take place by 2100 or so.

Projecting into the future based on current trends is only legitimate to a point. By 2100, it's entirely possible that the world will be at least three degrees warmer than now. But there are far too many variables to make any kind of prediction about the state of the world 94 years from now. Assuming that global warming leads to the catastrophic changes that most scientists seem to think will occur, it's likely that the era of lesisure tourism by the average person will be long over by then.

What I found particularly amusing was the researchers' factoring of current economic figures into their data. Economists can barely extrapolate predictions for their own countries one year into the future from the most up-to-date statistics. How can this research possibly factor in reliable economic data for 2100?

The article from the Washington Post is not news. Journalists are usually ready to pounce on politicians and celebrities for the least sign of hypocrisy or conspiracy. Meanwhile, some hucksters from academia are quoted verbatim.

Yes, there probably will be more tourists to Canada coming in the next five or ten years. By 2100? I'll leave that forecast to the science fiction writers. They can at least call what they write entertainment.

tags: global warming, dumb predictions, lazy journalism, Canada tourism, the experts are wrong

Cuba Libre

2006-08-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

South Florida's Cuban exile community has got to be having mixed feelings about the benefits of modern medical science.

Cuba's celebrated miracle-worker doctors are keeping Fidel Castro from succumbing to his latest medical ailments. The octogenarian dictator has at least temporarily ceded power to his (relatively) younger brother, but it looks like those hoping for change on the isolated socialist island nation will have to keep waiting for their dreams to be fulfilled.

Lots of people out here on the left coast have their own opinions on the situation. At various parties and get togethers over the last couple of weeks, I've heard a few oddball statements about the Carribean's biggest island from people whose firsthand experience with Cuba mostly consists of 72-hour debauched booze-fests at Cuba's beach tourist resorts. "The people are happy over there! They don't want capitalism. Fidel built schools for the children and everybody has a job. They're much better off with communism."

Right. That's why the Castro regime's biggest immigration debate is about how to keep its impoverished people from sailing en masse to the shores of its greatest ideological enemy. The people in Cuba are so hopeful about their future on the island that it has a birth rate lower even than Japan's and an abortion rate higher than just about anywhere in the Western hemisphere. They're so happy about their government that the police can toss people in jail just for badmouthing it - usually on the word of family members, neighbors or associates who pass on the incriminating hearsay.

Are the people of Cuba truly happy? Hopefully, the world will be able to hear what they really think before the Castro's little brother gets too comfortable in his new office.

tags: Fidel Castro, communist island, Cuba Libre, regime change, true happiness

Western alien-nation

2006-08-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

Vancouverites ought to feel a little affinity for the creatures of Planet UB313.

Of course, such creatures would probably consist of extreme-cold-resistant bacteria, if they even exist. Still, out on the west coast, we sometimes can be made to feel just as isolated from the centre of the action as one of the solar system's newly promoted interstellar bodies (For those who have no clue what I'm going on about, check out this article about the reordering of our solar system by astronomers with way too much time on their hands).

Much hyperbole has been uttered in recent years about Western Canadian alienation. The small but growing number of separatists in BC and Alberta are still far from commanding Quebec-style respect in Ottawa.

Still, it's hard to forget that the last federal election was already pretty much decided by the time vote counters had reached the Manitoba-Ontario border. The vote tally in BC was little more than a predictable footnote to the political event.

Like it or not, we're still on the fringe.

Of course, that's where the analogy with Planet UB313 ends. The planet with the funny name will likely never be more than an interstellar gas station for our spacefaring species on its way to greener pastures somewhere near Alpha Centaurai.

Meanwhile, Vancouver is Canada's vital gateway to the countries of the Pacific Rim. The abberant Atlantic/Eurocentric tilt of Canadian interest in the wider world has already shifted heavily towards Asia. Soon, our connections with that part of the world will rival what we have with the USA.

The shift to the Pacific will be permanent. Vancouver and its hinterland had better start getting the respect it deserves from the people back east - starting with a few more seats in the House of Commons and corresponding representation in the Senate.

And it better start happening long, long before Shell builds its first hydrocarbon refueling station on Planet UB313.

tags: Western alienation, BC Alberta, Pacific Rim, Gateway to Asia, really lame analogies

Canadians are cheap-ass jerks?

2006-08-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

Are we really all that bad?

Just a day after I blog about how nice our country is to live in, I find criticism that Canadians need to do more to help out those less fortunate beyond our borders.

According to a poll by the Centre for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine, we rank only 10th out of 21 rich countries when it comes to helping the poor. But then, when I looked at the actual criteria, the poll suddenly became confusing. It mixed in things like aid and trade policies with which countries we sell high-tech weapons to and environmental policy. I understand the pollsters were trying to get a comprehensive view, but with such a wide range of variables, I'm a little confuses how one would conclude that someone ranked tenth instead of eleventh, much less first or twenty-first.

At the same time, it seems our allegedly parsimonious ways are not really hurting our international image. On the latest Anholt Nation Brands Index (whatever that is...) we have the second-most popular national brand in the world. That basically means that people around the world are more likely to buy our products if they know they were made in Canada than if they were made in, let's say, France.

Now, if only we actually produced something besides oil, maple syrup and beer.

tags: cheap jerks, Centre for Global Development and Foreign Policy, Canadian brand, Anholt Nations Brands Index

What a wonderful world

2006-08-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Looking out on the water from English Bay in Vancouver, the world is a peaceful place.

The clouds part so that the sun shines down on the open water where recreational boaters are getting an early start on the weekend. In the distance, snow-topped mountains fade into the blue of the water and the sky. The only sound that disturbs the serenity is the reassuring whirring of bicycle wheels and roller blades as the beautiful people cruise along the seawall.

English Bay is not truly open water - Vancouver Island is somewhere out there beyond the horizon. But beyond that, the Pacific Ocean looms ahead like the vastness of outer space.

The latest scare out of London reminds us that no country is entirely safe these days (as if we needed a reminder). Still, on days like today, with the old trees of Stanley Park at my back and the symbol of civilization that is the trendy cafe a short walk away, it's easy to put those bad thoughts out of your mind for a little while.

Peaceful leisure is the privelege of a peaceable kingdom.

To see the images that have brought me to this tranquil place of the soul, just click on the Flickr box to the right, just above my links, or click here. Enjoy.

tags: Stanley Park, English Bay, peaceable kingdom, tranquility

Conspiring against logic

2006-08-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

Flight passengers around the world will be facing long delays because a few dozen psycho jihadis in London were caught trying to carry out a sequel to 9-11.

The plot to down 10 passenger jetliners headed to the US was the big story today. What was the reaction around the photocopier at the office?

"I'll tell you what it's all about," one opined with a voice of casual authority. "Fifteen thousand Israelis in Lebanon."

Nice try, guy.

These kind of ops take many months at the very least to plan and organize. The current Middle East conflict has only been running for a month. Nope, they already hated us Zionist-supporting decadent satanic western crusader types since way before Israel decided enough was enough with Hezbollah taking lethal pot-shots at its citizens.

But it went downhill from there. "It's just another roundup to justify their fear-mongering."

Right. The demonic neo-cons in America and their lapdogs in Britain engineered what would have been the greatest mass-murder of their own citizens in modern history to justify their racist imperial foreign policy - and pinned the blame on some hapless innocents that never, ever so much as got fined for jaywalking. Makes sense... if the only books you ever read in your life were the Illuminati trilogy.

The lunch break chatter degenerated further into an all out, anti-American rant. I half-expected some of my co-workers to blame the Yanks for AIDS - when I remembered that one had done just that on some other occasion.

Occasionally, I just find it entertaining when my colleagues spout off the latest conspiracy theory they've gleaned from the Internet. Today, it was just upsetting, since I suspect the chatter would have been exactly the same if the planes really had gone down.

tags: conspiracy theory, neocon jerks, Illuminati conspiracy, terror apologist, anti American, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Road Trip

2006-08-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

I don't do much highway driving if I can avoid it.

Nonetheless, on the recent BC Day long weekend, we had a chance to set out on the open road from Vancouver to Kelowna. I thought about writing a detailed travelogue about our pleasant time in BC's wine country, our nearly-tragic breakdown and our inevitable return to home base on the Greyhound.

But rather than bore my readers with text, I thought it would be much more efficient to just show my video of the experience. Check out the video above, or view it on YouTube here. Enjoy.

tags: road trip, car breakdown, Kelowna, travelogue, highway driving, Canadian countryside, Sideways, wine country

Cut and run? Not yet... but it isn't looking good

2006-08-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Canada's involvement in Afghanistan is once more coming under scrutiny as more of our soldiers are coming home in flag-draped coffins.

My first instinct is to recall a post I wrote in April (Really? Soldiers die in war zones? But... really?). In it, I argued that media coverage of the inevitable casualties from the Afghan front would unrealistically portray the tragedy in terms of a national disaster.

This has happened. One example of the latest coverage can be found here. Just last week, the Vancouver Metro newspaper ran a front-page headline, "Why are we over there?" Every randomly(?)-surveyed Vancouverite answered that our soldiers should not even be in that part of the world.

So far, less than thirty Canadians have lost their lives trying to stabilize a part of the world that very recently hosted one of the worst regimes in modern history. The world wants to prevent their return.

Soldiers dying is a terrible thing, but I never thought of Canada as a country that is willing to abandon its fight after the military equivalent of a bloody nose.

But even my robust support of this mission is fading - not because of the casualties, but because of the current Afghan regime is starting to look too much like the old one.

The last 200 South Koreans were booted out of Afghanistan today, after 1,000 had already left. They were ordered to leave over suspicions that they were preaching Christianity to the locals - a crime punishable by death. Other incidents like this have already been widely reported in the mass media. The trend is unmistakable.

Afghanistan is a Muslim nation. No efforts on the part of foreign missionaries, North American pop culture stars or even military intervention on the scale of the old Soviet occupation is going to change that - ever.

All the latest Afghan government edicts are doing is alienating and offending the mostly Western governments providing the combat boots on the ground necessary to help his nation.

Canadians shouldn't be dying for a regime that stomps on human freedom and encourages hatred of foreigners. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay should be asking some very direct questions of his counterpart in Kabul. If he doesn't get the right answers, then we should get out.

Getting into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban in the first place was the right thing. Staying to help the country get on its feet was an ethical decision as well. But at some point, Afghanistan will have to stand on its own. It might be sooner than anyone though.

tags: Afghanistan peacekeeping, fear of the other, bad strategy

Here's a peace plan that hasn't been tried

2006-08-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

While Canadians debate whether our government was too hasty in taking sides on the latest Middle East conflict, other national leaders closer to the action are just blurting out whatever they feel like - and I suspect they're not facing bad news in the polls as a result.

Breaking news: The solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel.

That's Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's solution ( as reported by the Associated Press here).

Give the man a Nobel Peace Prize. The beauty of the plan, of course, is its simplicity. Kill (or deport at gunpoint) the entire population of a UN member state and there will be nothing left to fight over. It's peace by default.

And why stop at the Middle East? There's plenty of conflicts around the globe that would be easy enough to fix with this method. Just dump every single Taiwanese citizen into the Pacific and China would have no reason left to aim 14,000 missiles at the island.

North and South Korea? Well, since their armed forces sort of balance each other out, I guess you could flip a coin. Heads, you win, tails, you eat cyanide-laced kimchee.

Then there are those pesky Cubans. Technically, the USA isn't actually at war with Cuba, but those touchy Gringos sure do find the island's communist regime irritable. Just have every single Cuban walk the plank into shark-infested waters. Problem solved, right there.

Of course, one national leader already came up with this solution over sixty years ago, so really, the peace prize ought to go to him posthumously. He even had a name for his plan that pretty much said it all - The Final Solution.

Maybe President Ahmadinejad will have the good manners to at least mention the Fuhrer by name as he accepts the prize. But surely we would all forgive a man so devoted to the cause of peace should be found lacking in the finer points of etiquette.

tags: Israel Lebanon conflict, Middle East peace plan, homicidal maniac, genocidal madman

Harper's principles versus CTV polls

2006-08-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Our embattled Prime Minister is still catching flak for his principled stand.

It's been a few weeks since Stephen Harper came out to bat for the democratic state of Israel versus the Hezbollah terrorist organization that provoked the current Middle-East dust-up in the first place. It wasn't a popular decision then, and it still isn't - and Harper knew it.

About 1,000 of Vancouver's Jewish community gathered, myself included, at the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue last night (with a visible RCMP presence after a Muslim American lunatic massacred people at a Jewish community centre in Seattle) applauded Harper's actions. No doubt, most Jews across Canada are sending their goodwill to the PM for his stand.

But Jewish voters are outnumbered these days by a great number of Muslim voters, boosted by immigration trends in recent decades. The numbers are still not that significant for either ethnic group relative to Canada's population (measured in the hundreds of thousands out of a population of over thirty million). Still, in the tight election race that will inevitably occur, every vote will count.

It may be that most Muslim voters are not necessarily swayed by Canada's foreign policy overseas and that other issues like health care, crime, social services ultimately sway their allegiance. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next election.

More disturbing is a poll taken by the Globe and Mail/CTV. Only 32 per cent of Canadians support Harper's stance, with 45 per cent in opposition. This squares with the statistic tht 77 per cent of Canadians believe Canada should be taking a neutral position.

Actually, the numbers seem to reflect the vote spread that put Harper in the PM's office in the first place. Political partisanship may be the cause of these numbers rather than any actual opinion on the conflict.

Of course, different results are possible when one frames the question differently. If Canadians had been asked whether national governments have a duty to protect their citizens from terrorism, nearly all would undoubtedly agree with that statement (except for terrorists, presumably). Even in our much more pacifistic modern-day society, most would likely approve of a war beyond our borders if some pint-sized European nation kept lobbing rockets at Newfoundland and kidnapped members of our coast guard.

But if these numbers indicate that Canadians are more concerned about their ability to travel abroad safely with a maple leaf glued to their backpack than with supporting a democracy in a life-and-death struggle with terrorists, then we're all in trouble.

tags: Stephen Harper, neocon agenda, Hezbollah terrorist, govern by poll, Israel Lebanon war

Legal lunacy hurts pride

2006-07-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

First, it was Molson Canadian's asinine legal battle to obtain all trademark rights over the use of the word, "Canadian". They still hold that right in regards to the beer industry, but it remains to be seen whether I will some day pay my income taxes directly at the liquor store.

Then it was Donal Trump, looking to trademark the phrase, "You're fired!" Granted, he is good at it...

Canada's gay and lesbian community has now joined the attack on common sense and the English language. Led by Pride Toronto, the proponents' efforts to trademark the term, "Pride", is leaving some members of Vancouver's gay community, local businesses, and even the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) a little underwhelmed (Read the full Canadian Press story about this by Jeremy Hainsworth here).

As local BCCLA representative Micheal Vonn put it, "It is a term in common public parlance. To say we will be the gatekeepers of a term, it is niggling from a civil libertarian standpoint."

Of course, royalties will not have to be paid in the event someone uses one of these phrases in a private conversation or a line of written text (eg. "As a Canadian, I take pride in the fact that you're fired. Now, clean out your desk.") And trademarking names and slogans as a general point of law is of course a good thing.

But taking words and phrases that are already in everyday use and trying to make money from it is just plain cynical.

So, to all that wish to engage in such buffoonery, I tell you in the plainest terms, get bent. (The expression, "Get bent" has legal trademark pending approval for this author).

tags: Gay Pride, Lesbian Pride, pride in a job well done, name trademark, you're fired

You don't want our money? Um, okay...

2006-07-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

My eyes don't often stray too long in the business section of the newspaper.

My vision tends to go blurry as I glance over stock dividends and the latest merger between SuperDuperBank and IJustDon'tCareInsurance.

But one item did catch my eye the other day (as reported by David Ljunggren in a Reuters article). The upcoming Dalai Lama visit to Vancouver in September is causing some commotion on the other side of the Pacific Rim.

Canada has decided to give full citizenship to Tibet's most famous exile. The leaders of the country that sent him packing in the first place when they invaded in 1959 seem to be a little upset about this.

"China has a big market and we hope we can co-operate with all the countries in the world," remarked Zhang Weidong, political counselor at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa. "But certainly, if some troubles always appear or emerge within the bilateral relationship, then the relationship in other areas certainly will be hurt."

Asked later to explain his statement, he added "I don't think it's a threat. I'm just trying to make things clearer."

So... let me get this straight. Canada buys $22 billion dollars worth of goods more than China buys from Canada every year - which contributes to a dearth of business opportunities on our home front. Canadian firms, meanwhile, can't get a toe-hold in Chinese market because of rampant intellectual piracy and protectionism.

Exactly how could they punish us? And why would Canada simply roll over for the Asian superpower when we're so quick to condemn the overreaches of the one in our own backyard?

If giving the Dalai Lama citizenship is going to take a bite out of that $22 billion trade deficit, our elected representatives might consider just granting Canadian passports to the entire student leadership of the Tiananmen Square demonstration.

Let's see if they really want to put their money where their mouth is.

tags: China, Dalai Lama, Chinese government, trade deficit

Triumph of the Il

2006-07-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

"Do you think North Korea is going to start a war?"

Ju Yeon asked me with the kind of look that lets you know that no matter what answer you give, you're screwed.

My South Korean English-as-a-Second-Language student explained that her morning-class teacher had used the phrase, "North Korea will start a war" in an example of the first conditional grammar form (eg. "North Korea will start a war if normal countries start reacting to its nuclear blackmail, massive human rights violations and insane provocations with the condemnation and sanctions it so richly deserves). She was upset over the "incident" and had already complained about the instructor. Now she wanted to know my opinion.

"Well, um, I don't know... I mean, maybe it will, maybe it won't, I don't know, I'm just an English teacher in Vancouver!" I blurted out. "What do I know?"

She nodded and frowned and stewed in her chair for the remainder of the class. I was off the hook, but she would have a score to settle with her morning instructor at another time.

I always advise new instructors to steer clear of controversial examples when they are teaching new language. To me, the idea that North Korea might start a war (either on purpose or by accident) is simply taking what I read about and see on TV to its logical conclusion. It's not so much controversial as common sense. I assumed this would be clear to someone who actually lives in a country within range of 13,000 North Korean artillery pieces, but... whatever.

Some people just don't see it. At a protest rally for peace in Lebanon on the weekend, the local communists (and I'm not kidding - they were card-carrying members of the Trotskyist League) were out in strength. The headline of their free newspaper was "Defend North Korea" - just below "Zionist Rampage in Gaza". Nice.

It's sad that some Canadians are so brainwashed by their own propaganda that they would support a regime that has more torture chambers than public washrooms.

For those who have no opinion either way or can't tell Kim Jong Il from Chan Ho Park (but would like to know more), I've created the video posted above. You can also view the version on YouTube here.

tags: North Korea, Kim Jong Il, nuclear blackmail, DMZ, South Korea, propaganda

Free speech and opinionated whackos

2006-07-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

It is possibly our greatest freedom.

Our right to free speech is something that most Canadians take for granted. Most people in the world have very little of it, if any. Even a relatively innocuous headline like "Inexperienced PM
spoke too soon" in the Toronto Sun referring to our own controversial head of state would have little chance of getting into print in China, Syria or Zimbabwe.

Since there is a perception of (private) media concentration in this country (in contrast to the publicly-funded and left-friendly CBC) some take it upon themselves to express their views in more untraditional mediums.

Lately, the "conspiracy truck" has been making its way around Vancouver (See it pictured above). I discovered it parked (presumably on purpose) near the old First World War memorial outside of the old train station in Gastown.

Actually, all of the ideas (eg. "The White House pre-9-11 planning of the illegal Iraqi invasion due to the looming peak oil crisis") plastered on the van are pretty well-known and powerful indictments in a web of "US-Zionist-Rich Racist Jerks" conspiracy theory. Marginalized people often feel like they have to get out these ideas into the public using "alternative media", as the mainstream media simply won't report it (since they are in the pocket of the original racist imperialist elites, of course).

Of course, in a country with freedom of expression and universal literacy, it may just be possible that our mainstream media doesn't dwell on stories about the great conspiracy of our time because, well, a lot of it is bunk.

In a country with free speech country, a truck plastered with cherry-picked facts and slogans can be no less free of the charge of propaganda than the slick news anchor laying out the evening news.

tags: peacenik, right wing propaganda, left wing propaganda, media bias

Drawn to the flames

2006-07-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

No sane person would ever walk towards a riot.

The violence is just too unpredictable. People run the other way, or hunker down in their homes and shops away from the threat.

Despite the deaths and terrible injuries from fire that happen in cities across Canada every year, there is a perception that fire is a lesser threat. A burning building is at once a spectacular tragedy and an exciting diversion.

That's the only explanation I can come up with for why some friends and I walked over to a fire at Vancouver's Quebec and 2nd Avenue last night.

We saw the smoke from the balconey of our Mount Pleasant condo before midnight . "That isn't a barbecue," somebody said.

"Should we go watch?"

I grabbed my camera. We went towards the smoke. We weren't the only ones, either. Hundreds of others came towards the industrial neighborhood. The police had to set up tape to keep the crowds back as the firefighters hosed down the blaze.

A smoky pillar billowed up above the flames and sparks. Ash swept up by a night breeze landed on our heads.

The crowd wasn't scared. The atmosphere reminded me of a neighborhood street party more than a disaster scene. I snapped shot after shot with my digital camera in poor lighting. Most of the shots turned out to look more like abstract art than news photos.

It's a good thing for us the building wasn't a fireworks factory. I guess I should have thought of that earlier.

The water kept pouring down and the blaze turned into a smoky haze. The crowd began to disperse.

We went home and had some ice cream. It was enough excitement for one night.

tags: fire at night, gawking onlookers, nothing to see here

Conservative policy vs Liberal expediency

2006-07-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Liberal Party's frontman Bill Graham had the ear of Vancouver's media yesterday - much to the dismay of Canadians who haven't been lobotomized.

"Canada has always had a proud tradition in the Middle East of being able to work with all parties in a way to establish the conditions of a long and lasting peace," he said (as quoted in a CanWest article linked here).

Nice one, Bill. In other words, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's principled support of the Middle East's only Western democracy when it is under attack is a bad idea - because Canada has so much pull in that part of the world.

Canada played a crucial role in the rescue of six American diplomats during the hostage Iranian hostage crisis... forty-six years ago.

"Okay, but a Liberal Prime Minister invented peacekeeping in the Middle East!" die-hard Liberals cry from the rooftops. "Surely that counts for something!"

Fair enough. We did put peacekeepers in between Egypt and Israel back in 1956. Of course, those peacekeepers politely withdrew from Sinai just as soon as Egypt asked them to, in 1967.

Egypt prompty rushed its tanks and soldiers on to Israel's border and declared, "The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel ... to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not of more declarations."

Pearson's peacekeepers were nowhere to be found. Israeli leaders, deciding not to wait for their declared enemies to drive them into the sea, went to war.

The Liberal government also sent Canadians into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and Al Queda. Liberal denunciations of the ongoing mission ring hollow, since the exact same reasons for becoming involved in the first place are just as valid now, if not more so.

Of course, our ability to act as an honest broker died then, if we ever truly had it. The Liberals' stated reason for opposing Conservative policy is a case of closing the barn door six years after the horses have escaped.

tags: Stephen Harper policy wonk, Liberal Party hack, political expediency, Canadian peacekeeping history

A time of war

2006-07-17T20:19:00.001-07:00

Every newspaper in the city seems to have given up on local coverage now that a full-blown shooting war has erupted in the Middle East... again.

Most Vancouverites probably won't pay too much attention to a war half a world away so long as gas prices don't get jacked up any further than they already have. But for those who have relatives in the conflict zone fearing death raining from the skies, you have my sympathies.

Many Canadians may not understand how the situation gone from bad to worse so fast. I've put together a little video to help my fellow citizens get up to speed quickly. I've posted it above (or you can check it out on Youtube by clicking here).

Hopefully, the day will come soon when the Vancouver Sun can once again focus its investigative efforts on more local matters.

tags: Israel, Israeli, Middle East, Hamas, Hezbollah, rocket attacks, Lebanon, Palestine, Palestinian, Gaza Strip, Iran, Syria, Middle East war, Israel conflict, IDF

Getting away with murder

2006-07-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Justice denied, one more time.

A nineteen year old man will be going to prison for seven years for his part in the swarming death of Jomar Lanot outside a Vancouver high school in 2003 (check the Canadian Press article by Terri Theodore here).

Seven years hardly seems like a fair trade for a life brutally taken without the slightest provocation. But then, the man was found guilty of manslaughter, not murder - which implies that the killer had no intent to kill.

Jomar was chased down and beaten with a wooden bat, golf clubs and a cricket bat. Most of the improvised weapons landed on Jomar's head. After the deed was done, the culprits ran in an effort to escape justice, leaving their bleeding victim on the ground.

What intent other than murder could there have been?

The worst part, of course, is that at least two killers will be walking free for lack of evidence. Witnesses have recanted statements, presumably out of fear of reprisal by the thugs that carried out the crime. Charges have been withdrawn. As a further insult to justice, Vancouver's law-abiding citizenry will have no way of knowing the murderers in their midst; their identities are protected by our youth justice rules.

If we needed another example to support Stephen Harper's get-tough-on-crime agenda, this is certainly it. The sad thing is, we didn't.

tags: youth crime, youth justice system, swarming death, Jomar Lanot, random violence, justice denied

Our home and native land

2006-07-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

Are Canada's native people on the brink of a new era of health, wealth and respect?

Probably not. But then, things can hardly get much worse.

Five hundred chiefs of the Canadian Assembly of First Nations has re-elected Phil Fontaine National Chief at their gathering in Vancouver today (check the Reuters article here). It remains to be seen whether he will manage to bring some relief to the people he represents. Meanwhile, a United Nations vote supporting the rights of indigenous people everywhere has been rejected by Canada (check the Reuters article here), for fear that the non-binding resolution will cede Canada's sovereignty over its national resources to First Nations.

It was only a few years back that Canadians recoiled at criticism from a UN report that natives living on reserves were living in similar conditions to that of the developing world. Since then, things haven't gotten much better. Native life spans are 7.5 years shorter on average than the rest of the population, reflected in high poverty rates, rampant drug and alcohol dependency, overrepresentation on welfare rolls and in prisions, dilapidated housing and infrastructure on reserves... the list goes on and on.

The roots of the problem go back to the days of first contact. To put things in perspective for those who may not appreciate the scale of the catastrophe that befell the native people (ie. "why can't 'these people' get their act together after 500 years?"), imagine the world as it is today.

The continents are populated by a great assortment of people at various stages of wealth and development, generally peaceful but certainly capable of violent conflict both inside and outside their borders. In the wealthiest societies, the people have even achieved a great measure of personal comfort and happiness and even spiritual enlightenment.

Then the Martians came.

They didn't look all that different from the people of earth. Aside from their skin color and a few minor genetic differences, humans and Martians would have looked virtually indistinguishable.

But they were different than anything humans had ever encountered.

Some of the Martians were warlike and hungry to conquer new lands with their technologically advanced weaponry. They saw humans as no different than the other strange animals populating the earth.

Other Martians just wanted to get rich by trading with the locals. They understood that the humans might even be sentient beings like themselves - and besides, in the interest of paying the mortgage on their vacation homes back on Phobos, it might be more convenient to keep the humans around to do the grunt work of extracting the resources they needed.

The warlike Martians killed humans at the slightest provocation. When the humans would fight back with their inferior fighter planes and tanks, the Martian war machines would destroy entire cities to avenge their losses.

New York disappeared in a blast of heat and light. Tokyo sank into the ocean. All of the capitals of Europe succumbed in clouds of poison gas.

The trading Martians mostly kept quiet about that, so long as there were enough humans left over elsewhere to make a profit from - or the empty lands left behind still had resources in them worth mining.

The warrior Martians did their bit, but it was the scourge of their own Martian viruses inadvertantly released on the locals really brought humanity to the brink of extinction. In some cities, less than one in 20 inhabitants survived the strange diseases.

The Martians, meanwhile, built up their outposts into their own bizarre-looking artificial cities. The few remaining humans were gathered up and encouraged to settle on land fit for neither agriculture nor involvement in the dynamic Martian economy. Even the traditional occupations of human society no longer made sense when Martians could easily replicate technologically superior products, and the only currency that mattered was Martian Platinum. The internal economy of the last remaining humans collapsed. Out of desperation, many of the survivors learned the Martian language and customs well enough to continue their existence on the fringes of an alien society.

Centuries passed. Humanity's plight became more and more desperate. A few highly-ranked Martians had even come around to champion the human's cause and pity the poor race that they had displaced. Some of these decided that the only hope of humanity's survival was to assimilate even further into Martian society and abandon their old culture. They opened re-education centres where human children would be sent to learn Martian knowledge and culture.

Some humans actually seemed to benefit from it and emerged into Martian society as functional, even prosperous adults. Some couldn't make the transition into the alien society and retreated into the recesses of pitiful humanity. Many more were traumatized by their experience, as a good number of the very Martians who were supposed to educate them treated the humans to the most despicable practices of their own world.

Only a few decades later, the smallest improvements begin to appear in human society. Many of them are still relegated to the fringes of Martian society. But a small number of human leaders have even managed to become successful members of that society. While their population will never again challenge the numbers of Martians, human societies are starting to stabilize and even grow into self-sustaining communities (amounting to 4.4 per cent of the population of Martian society).

Many Martians may still carry negative perceptions of the original people of Earth, but more educated Martians have begun to see tragedy that their ancestors wrought long ago. Humans' rights are recognized and Martian laws ensure that humans actually get some advantages over Martians in some sectors of the Martian economy. Resources are set aside to ensure that the worst deprivations that take place on human reserves become a thing of the past.

Will the humans of Earth ultimately get the chance to stand as equals with the Martians in what was once their own land?

This science fiction story isn't over, yet.

tags: Mars attacks, colonization in Canada, First Nations, Native Canadians, first contact, cultural genocide, aboriginal title, Canadian history, Canadian Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, indigenous people

Blogging on Metroblogging Vancouver

2006-07-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not rich yet, but at least I'll be famous.

Well, somewhat well known, anyway. Vaguely memorable? Okay, how about "that guy, I know I've read his byline somewhere..."

Loyal readers of my unasked-for opinions can read them at a new online space. Starting this week, my posts will also start appearing at Metroblogging Vancouver.

These won't be cross-posts, either: I'm talking all new material, here. So if you just can't get enough Narvey on this site, you'll find more of what you need on Vancouver's most popular online forum.

Just as soon as I can get over a few technical hurdles, the rant and rave-fest will begin in earnest.

Of course, if you want more comprehensive coverage of the Vancouver scene, you might even check out some of the other authors on the site. They all seem like nice people.

See you there, people.

tags: Metroblogging Vancouver, famous in Vancouver, rant, rave

The Georgia Straight's not-so-hidden agenda

2006-07-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Criticizing the Georgia Straight for a lack of objectivity is about as futile and senseless as complaining about the lack of pro-Nazi coverage in the mainstream media.

Vancouver's local entertainment and alternative-news weekly is entitled to publish anti-establishment rants all they like. But the latest tirade against the Conservative Party in general and Prime Minister Stephen Harper annoyed me - not for its perspective, but the tired circular logic used to prop up its stale thesis.

Donald Gutstein's "Harperstein" article takes up the corrupt Liberals' tainted slogan of a Conservative "hidden agenda" with relish. The writer slams the conservative Fraser Institute think tank as a "fake" for doing research to find proof to support its conclusions, instead of the other way around - and then promptly commits the exact same intellectual crime when he goes after Harper's throat.

Gutstein cherry-picks unrelated facts that seem to show a link between Fraser Institute policy and Harper's own views to imply that our elected leader is in the hypnotic thrall of rich, ivy-league educated evil morons. These same establishment types are intent on turning Canada into a US puppet where our workers labor at third world wages while married homosexuals are cattle-prodded back into the closet.

The lack of actual evidence for such diabolical scheming is no problem for mind-readers like Guststein, though. Where Harper has not attempted to sell the country lock-stock to American interests, turn Canada into a police state or outlaw abortion, he claims that the Conservatives obviously would - if only they had a majority government. Evidently, Gutstein is fed his propaganda by Paul Martin's old speechwriters.

He concludes with these questions:

"Has Harper really changed his spots, or is he still committed to implementing the full Fraser Institute agenda? Have his handlers simply altered his image to make him more attractive to middle-of-the-road voters? Or did his loss in 2004 and his bare minority victory in 2006 convince him that he needs to be more moderate in his views? Only time and majority government will tell."

The problem is, Gutstein's "Harperstein" article was supposed to answer these questions, not repeat old aspersions. If he doesn't have the answers, then the preceding 2,400 words of the article might as well be printed on toilet paper.

tags: Stephen Harper, Conservative Party, Conservative policy, Fraser Institute, Harperstein, left wing bias, social conservatism, hidden agenda