Currents

A like-minded and earnest group called Canadians for Afghanistan has taken note of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee’s worthy efforts. This writer is pleased to help our two groups make introductions and help unify some of the disparate efforts by Canadians on behalf of Afghanistan.

A few of Canadians for Afghanistan’s pointers:

Canada is making a real difference in Afghanistan. Our commitment there continues Canada’s proud, century-old tradition of supporting international efforts for peace, justice and security.

We stand firmly with Canada’s partners in the United Nations and our allies in NATO, who warn that if Canada and other countries abandon Afghanistan today, the country will be plunged back into civil war and reemerge as the world’s problem tomorrow.

Follow this link to Canadians for Afghanistan to take action.

A belated kudos to BC author, journalist and all-around intellectual tough guy Terry Glavin on his column about the human rights witch hunt by the Canadian Islamic Congress against one of Canada’s most controversial (well, according to the CIC, anyway) conservative commentators, Mark Steyn.

An excerpt: This entire escapade is not just a threat to Maclean’s and Steyn specifically but to journalists generally, and also to pamphleteers, bloggers and just about anyone who might occasionally express a public opinion on a subject of public interest. It also threatens to invite the wrath of the Supreme Court of Canada, which should be expected if Maclean’s and Steyn find themselves forced to fight this all the way up. The result could cause great harm to the credibility and the legal clout of human rights tribunals across the country.

First, they came for Steyn…

While the title above is simply a sophomoric shot-in-the-dark SEO optimization tactic, I did actually want to put a spotlight on the fine work they’re doing at the Green Blog. As a recently-minted convert to the environmental cause and an entirely self-declared expert on sustainability issues on the west coast, I salute thee.

Nice work on the Bali conference updates, catastrophic climate data links and even a thoroughly disgusting yet visually appealing anti-whaling ad photo. Am I guessing right that the Green Blog is based right out of big green giant Vancouver, or am I just projecting?

Now, if they could just throw in a disclaimer that Kyoto and conferences like Bali are really just a symbolic cover for signatory nations to do nothing at all (and that efforts of nations like Canada that may or may not be trying to put pressure on other countries to actually walk their talk are pretty much moot thereby), that would make my day.

Following on the recent death of a Polish national at Vancouver’s YVR airport after he was Tasered by cops, the RCMP have new rules for use of the law enforcement device: RCMP officers from now on only fire the electric stun guns at suspects who are combative or resisting arrest.

Um, I sort of assumed that was the procedure before the incident. Does this mean the RCMP are now admitting that their officers could use Tasers on suspects who were not combative or resisting arrest, but merely uppity? Interesting.

This is the official site of Currents… just in case my perpetual tech problems and indecision haven’t already driven away all of my blog traffic already.

First I moved to Wordpress.com from Blogger. Several wise and kindhearted bloggers (Michael Klassen, Addcoach) soon advised me to move back to a self-hosted domain with Wordpress, but I would not relent. Wordpress.com seemed to be a user-friendly platform, and that’s what I wanted. Pure hubris on my part.

Entranced by my new functionality and ease of use, this writer did not quite realize that the Wordpress.com terms of use disqualified any commercial use. As several of these pages promote my freelance and corporate copywriting business based in Vancouver, I was in violation of said terms. Thanks to Alphablogs consultant Isabella Mori for her timely intervention.

With sadness in my heart, I finally made the move back to my own domain. About 36 hours of mind-numbing geek work later, jnarvey.com is fully operational again.

The question is: will anyone be reading this, now that my frequent URL changes have thoroughly confused all my readers? Time to start rebuilding…

Here is an excerpt from Lyle Neff’s (aka Earnest Canuck’s) recent article about a Mobilization Against War and Occupation-organized hip-hop concert. A version of this article appeared in the Fall ‘07 issue of VR.

“Drury and MAWO aren’t really for peace,” K. said worriedly. “They’re for the other side. They are fans of the jihad. And mainstream publications like 24 Hours aren’t investigating such groups – they’re funding ‘em.”

Yes, they are. Brooding on this, I recalled the hip-hop consciousness of the Mississauga MC Zakaria Amara. Speaking his grassroots truth, comparing Muslims to Canadians, Amara spat out such rhymez as this:

Our sisters are purer
Than your Jennys and your Heathers
The only good thing about you
Is your Tim Horton’s muffin fritters

– just before he and the other Toronto bomb plotters took delivery of the alleged ammonium nitrate. Allegedly. Now, the MAWO cadres may genuinely believe MC Zak to be an unjustly imprisoned casualty of the neo-colonial Islamophobic imperialist apparatus. They have a Charter right to such a belief, the same way we countrymen of Zakaria Da Bomb uphold his freedom to express his frothing, murderous contempt for us.

Did the musicians and performers at MAWO’s circus realize the radical organizers were employing them in defense of blank-eyed little bigots like Amara, though? I suspect most didn’t. That’s why the “enlightened,” political division of hip-hop is almost as dull as the gangster division. Sorry, Kia; it doesn’t matter whether you’re “conscious” or not, if in point of fact you’re oblivious.

Pay us or we’ll shoot you in the lungs.

That’s pretty much the message to the planet from Ecuador this week.

Perhaps Canada ought to take a page from that playbook. We’ve got over a third of the world’s boreal forest, one fifth of the world’s temperate rainforest, and a tenth of the total global forest hostage, er, cover. Maybe we ought to take an ax to Stanley Park unless the province hands over a suitcase full of cash to Vancouver City Hall.

Paying nations to not cut down their own forests is bad policy, bad economics, and bad ethics.

“The trial of a criminal is against human rights. Human rights demand that we should have killed them in the first place when it became known they were criminals.”

Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since the leader of a country could get away with saying something like that. Then again, maybe we haven’t.

I got a reminder from Amnesty International today about Human Rights Day. Very timely. Take action now.

This writer is proud to be a founding member of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee. What follows is an excerpt from our statement to the Manley Panel on Canada’s future role in Afghanistan.”… We are New Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, and people of no particular political affiliation. We are Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists. We are authors, journalists, academics, gay rights activists, student activists, Afghan-Canadians, and feminists.Our Committee’s position on Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan, in sum, is this: We must stay. Human rights are universal. The United Nations calls for and expects Canada to remain dedicated to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and to the battle against terrorism there. We recognize that a robust military engagement, with the UN’s sanction and the consent of the Government of Afghanistan, is vital and necessary…We recognize the conflict in Afghanistan as a liberation struggle, waged by the Afghan people and their allies, against oppression, against obscurantism, illiteracy, and the most brutal forms of misogyny. It is a fight for democracy, and for peace, order, and good government. It is also a struggle waged by the sovereign Government of Afghanistan, a member state of the United Nations, against illegal armed groups that seek to overturn the democratic will of the Afghan people.In Afghanistan, the great global struggle for the recognition and protection of basic human rights – universal rights - is being waged with a particular and necessary ferocity. We cannot and must not retreat…”Signed,Zachary Miles Baddorf, Journalist in Vancouver; Colette Belanger, CW4WA Board of Directors, Simon Bessette, LL.B candidate, University of New Brunswick; Melaney Black, CW4WAfghan – Victoria; Natalie K Bjorklund, MD, University of Manitoba; Marc-Andre Boivin, researcher, UQAM Peacekeeping research group member; John Boon, Liberal Party activist; Ken Bryant, Associate Professor, Asian Studies, University of British Columbia; Jennifer Button, CW4WA – Victoria; Iona Campagnolo, PC, CM, OBC, Former Lt. Gov., British Columbia; Natasha Cowan, McGill University, business graduate; Stewart John Cunningham, Sess. Instructor, Historical Studies, U of T Mississauga; Steven Davis, Centre on Values and Ethics, Carleton University; Judith Desautels, Supporter, CW4WA, Amnesty International; Janice Eisenhauer, Executive Director, CW4WA; Lois Edwards, CW4WA, Manitoba; Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims, peace and gender researcher on Afghanistan; L. Chris Fox, Doctoral Candidate, University of Victoria; Paul Franks, Professor, Philosophy, University of Toronto; John Fraser, P.C., O.C., O.B.C., C.D., Q.C., LL.D. (Hon.); Terry Glavin, Author, journalist, adjunct professor, UBC; Stephen Glanzberg, law student; Sanja Golic, MA researcher (Afghanistan education); Robert Gillies, Citizen, Toronto, Ontario; Prof. Richard Gordon, MD, University of Winnipeg (Books with Wings); Robert Harlow, Novelist, British Columbia; Najia Haneefi, Former Executive director, Afghan Women’s Education Centre, Kabul; Daniel King, McGill University Senator; Ian King, Journalist, Columnist, Vancouver; Robert D. Lane, Res. Associate, Phil. & Religion, Malaspina U College; OJ Lavoie, Environment activist, McGill University; Jill Leslie, CW4WAfghan - Victoria Chapter; Bruce Lyth, British Columbia Young Liberals, vice-president; Flora MacDonald, PC, CC, O. Ont.Chair of CARE Canada; Dave Mann, Brantford, Ontario New Democrat, Euston Canada; Mark Masongong, Liberal Party Staff; Jim Monk, Ontario gay rights, trade union activist; Gareth Morley, Lawyer, Victoria; Lyle Neff, Poet, journalist, critic, Vancouver; Jonathon Narvey, Journalist, editor, copywriter, Vancouver; Lauryn Oates, Vice-president, CW4WA; Tom O’Neill, Associate Professor, Social Sciences, Brock University; David A. Pariser, Professor, Art Education, Concordia University; Professor Karim Qayumi, Afghan-Canadian community leader, Director of Excellence for Surgical Education and Innovation, Vancouver; John Richards, Professor, Public Policy Program, Simon Fraser University; Ferooz Sekandarpoor, Production Manager, Ariana (Afghan) TV, Vancouver; Madeliene Tarasick, CW4WAfghan – Kingston; Beryl Wasjman, Institute for Public Affairs – Montreal; Morton Weinfeld, Sociology professor, McGill University; Axel Van Den Berg, Professor, Sociology, McGill University; Ariana Yaftali, Afghan-Canadian, Manitoba.

Six Metres and Rising
A play in one act
(Generously submitted to Currents by friend and creative genius Mr. Earnest Canuck)

CAST.
DAVID SUZUKI, an environmentalist.
STEPHEN HARPER, a politician.
WEN JIABAO, another politician.
KING CANUTE, another.
GLOBAL CLIMATE, an entity, played by a hot woman.
KYOTO, a dog.

CURTAIN. A Vancouver beach in winter. DAVID SUZUKI, wearing only a thong, performs labourious Tai Chi exercises, puffing out his cheeks. Enter STEPHEN HARPER, carrying a laptop.

HARPER: What kind of activity are you carrying out there, David Suzuki?

SUZUKI: Capping, pant, my emissions of greenhouse, pant, gasses, Prime, pant, Minister.

HARPER: Really? And this capping, is it the manner of thing done by cool people, statistically?

SUZUKI (angrily): Yes…!

HARPER (thoughtfully): I should have capped my emissions when I was a schoolboy. Statistically, I might have reduced the percentile of days spent with my underwear around my neck. Statistically. (Sits, opens laptop.) Hey, Suzuki…? What’s 450 million years old and two miles thick?

SUZUKI: Your government’s heartless indifference, maybe, to future generations? Ha, ha!

HARPER: Ha, ha! Ha. Um, no, though. Let me refer to the punchline here. It was the ice sheet in Ordovician times, when atmospheric carbon dioxide was ten times higher than –

(Enter GLOBAL CLIMATE, pursued by KING CANUTE. WEN JIABAO reluctantly trails in after them.)

GLOBAL CLIMATE: Micronations! Crop failure! SUVs! Sustainable! Carbon trading! Sustainability! Fossil fuels! Flossing!

KING CANUTE (imploringly): Why were you so hot for me, Global Climate, and now you’re so cold? Please! Baby! Can’t we go through the highs and lows together? Don’t go changing, just to please me –

WEN JIABAO: All right, King Canute, that’s enough. You’ll never lower her tube top’s see level. It’s futile! Now get the hell out of here.

CANUTE: I’ll turn her back someday. You’ll see. (Slinks offstage.)

CLIMATE (sadly): King Canute consensus oilsands inconvenient truthiness? (Suddenly enraged) Mean temperature! Ice calves! Sequester! Monbiot! Monbiot!

SUZUKI: So, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. How are you?

JIABAO: Harper, Suzuki, hello. Frankly, I’m a little tired of dealing with this Global Climate bi —

HARPER: Bit of a policy challenge, with a range of costs and opportunities, you’re saying, Wen? I feel you. That is, I empathize with you. I’m feeling you.

JIABAO: I was saying, she’s not my problem. Also, she’s a skank.

SUZUKI: Whoa!

HARPER: Easy!

CLIMATE: Protocol! Sweet light crude! Protocol!

JIABAO: Whatever. She’s quite aware what she’s going through. You all stay away from my house, all right? (Exit. He shouts from offstage.) Climate changes! It’s what she does!

HARPER: So. Um. Ms. Climate. Would you care for a light massage? Several studies have shown it might be medicinally beneficial. Within a margin of error. Statistically.

CLIMATE: Recycling incentive biosphere solar panel?

SUZUKI: Damn you, Harper! Just because this country has one per cent of the world’s weather, doesn’t mean you can fiddle with Global Climate, you, you… pollutant…

HARPER: David, I would ask you to reduce your face-punching anger by a few degrees, now. Over the next predictive time period, I mean… voluntarily…

SUZUKI: Despoiler! Climate flirter!

(HARPER and SUZUKI begin to wrestle and stagger offstage, pursued by the agitated CLIMATE.)

CLIMATE: Community gardens organic bicycle. Healing spiritual dialogue circle! Dialogue! Deniers! Exxon! Monbiot!

(Exit. Enter KYOTO.)

KYOTO: As we have seen tonight, friends, climate is a thing that affects us all. In these troubled times, we can no longer deny that each of us has some emissions. Globular warmening is no longer just a recipe, but a scientishly-acknowledged truism. Our duty to the planet and to future generations is clear: we must fossilize our remaining fuel resources. And wherever sea-level communities are threatened by changing climaxes, kibble must be provided, friends, as much kibble as the developed world can spare, lest overheated dogs lead us straight into environmental catastrophe. I may be just a small dog in a big atmosphere, my fellow citizens, but believe me: I was named for a treaty, and I know.