Currents

Odd that of all the ink spent on Kosovo’s declaration of independence, I have yet to see any Canadian commentators bringing up the more local issue of Quebec separatism.

Hopefully the news out of Kosovo doesn’t give our own separatists any ideas about unilaterally declaring independence. Federalist politicians aren’t the only ones who can be expected to grossly overreach when it comes to sloganeering.

Wait for it.

Blogging is one of those things you do when you’re not facing the prospect of death.

Afterwards is a good time to get back into it, though. To my readers, may I apologize for an unscheduled absence owing to a bizarre combination of sudden health issues.

As a result of my ongoing issues, a recent visit to Vancouver General Hospital gave me an insider’s perspective on the state of our health care waiting lists.

Anyone remember when Michael Moore interviewed those Canadians in a Toronto hospital and asked them how long it would take them to see a doctor? Remember how those clueless bags of monkey crap fell over themselves to answer something like this: “Oh, just 20 minutes! What did I say? Fifteen minutes at most! Oh, what the hell, we can really just go in and demand service whenever we want. Doctor, get over here!”

Liars. They’re all dirty rotten liars.

A bombing at a West Broadway taco restaurant that also destroyed a neighboring Starbucks has left Vancouver residents shaken (CBC News). I know I’m wondering what the heck is happening in our city. It seemed for a while that there were gang shootings every couple of days, and now this bombing takes the violence in Vancouver to a whole other level.

I stopped in at that Starbucks not even a month ago. This is just messed up. Of course, the big question is why the hell anyone would want to do this?

I’ve been so fixated on meeting some crazy deadlines in the last week that I never got around to ushering in Chinese New Year properly. So here goes…Gung Haggis Fat Choy! Oh, wait, that’s not quite right… Or is it?

Here’s a shout out to a Vancouver tradition that goes a long way to showing how combining cultural celebrations in unusual ways can be good for both sides. For those who don’t know, Gung Haggis Fat Choy (GHFC) is a made-in-Vancouver event invented to celebrate the timely coincidence of the Scottish cultural celebration of Robert Burns Day (January 25) with the Chinese New Year.

Interestingly, Vancouver blogger GHFC’s official website and blog is down today, on the same day as the tremendous Chinese New Year’s parade in Vancouver’s Chinatown, owing to its overuse of bandwidth. You know you’ve made it when…

By the way, to all who would prefer to maintain the pristine heritage of an ancient tradition, may I also add, Gung Hay Fat Choy. Cheers.

They brainwash their members into total submission to the cause. They bully members and outsiders into either joining them or getting out of their way. They use intimidation, threats and violence to get what they want.

They are known by many names: Fire This Time, Youth Third World Alliance, Mobilization Against War and Occupation, and others. They are the hijackers of Canada’s peace movement in Vancouver. Ivan Drury, a former MAWO member who has found the courage to leave this poisonous group told his story earlier in the week. He isn’t the only one to escape from MAWO’s mafia-like organization. Ian Beeching has also been inspired to tell his story of how a Canadian peace group was taken over by people who had far more in common with politicians like Stalin and Mao than Ghandi.

To be sure, I have no complaint with those who sincerely strive for lasting and just peace - as opposed to the sad sort of peace envisioned by certain local “peace” activists; a peace that will reign only after tens of millions have been blown up, burned alive and decapitated in a revolutionary war against the “imperialist” West.

I do have a problem with people, especially the educated lot sprouting out of our universities, who really ought to know better than to get involved with groups like Fire This Time and MAWO in the first place. A capacity for critical thinking is, after all, a requirement for entering an institution of higher learning.

Caught a great seminar on using technology for social marketing for fundraising and other purposes for non-profits called NetSquared The big event happened at Workspace in Vancouver’s paradoxically historic neighborhood of Gastown the other night, . Just a quick summary:

The seminar was attended by the usual rogue’s gallery of Vancouver web-monkeys, social media revolutionaries, bloggers, marketing execs and assorted independent professional contractors like yours truly (SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT: anyone out there need a dynamite Vancouver writer to make their web copy or press kit all pretty and shiny?) I was only able to stay for the first presentation, by online fundraising site GiveMeaning’s CEO Tom Williams. He talked about the opportunities for raising funds online. Not too surprisingly, he has found that personal networks through emails/phone calls/face to face conversations are the essential oil lubricating the online fundraising machine.

Indeed, he seemed to suggest that online fundraising stands little to no chance of succeeding without the human evangelist element: people with a sincere desire to do good who rope in their own social network to give money and time.

Darn this World Wide Interweb thing-y. Even with the latest technology, people still have to go out there and actually TALK to other people.

Oh, and there’s a contest where you can win serious cash prizes just for trying to make the world a better place. Nice gig if you can get it.

US cities are looking at copying Vancouver’s Insite legal injection facility (CP). On one level, it’s encouraging, but on another, it’s kind of depressing.

This is another contentious issue for Vancouver’s socio-political scene. The health care staff at the facility have undoubtedly saved lives and Insite absolutely deserves to stay open so long as it keeps demonstrating a benefit to the community (eg. reducing open drug use on the street that choked the life out of local businesses, curbing the spread of epidemics, etc).

But Insite is just one part of the solution. Getting vulnerable people off the streets and away from horrific conditions is going to reduce the incentive for people to get high for a moment’s respite.

The hijackers of Canada’s peace movement appear to be in for a fight.

Canada’s top soldier is telling certain partisan members of Canada’s political establishment to take a reality check about the Afghanistan mission. According to General Rick Hillier, we won’t be able to hand over their combat role to allied nations and the Afghan National Army in 2009 (Reuters).

“If you’re there, you’re going to be in the middle of a firefight,” he says. “This is the home of the Taliban.” No kidding.

While the likes of Vancouver’s MAWO’s propagandists like to portray the Taliban as heroic freedom fighters in a life and death struggle for self-determination, the truth is that most Afghans aren’t Taliban, most Afghans want and need the international community to help them, and Afghanistan and the rest of the world is undoubtedly better off without the Taliban.

That said, Canadians and the international community ought not to be writing the Afghan government a blank check. Afghan journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh had the audacity to download a report on women’s rights and for this was sentenced to death by an Islamic court.

Canadians can do something about this right now (Thanks to fiery activist Terry Glavin for these detailed instructions): Write Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Harper.S@parl.gc.ca) urging him to take a very hard line on Sayed’s case - he should tell President Karzai that the charges against Sayed should be dropped, or at the very least that he must be assured of a fair trial, and the death sentence be overturned immediately. Write Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, too (BerniM@parl.gc.ca), along with a dignified protest letter to His Excellency Omar Samad, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada (contact@afghanemb-canada.net).

Some advice for renters and condo owners in Vancouver’s overheated real estate market: if you don’t want to get woken up in the middle of the night by loud noise, don’t live downtown.

Really, I do sympathize with Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who came up with the unprecedented idea of allowing firefighters to keep their fire engine sirens off at night so that he could sleep soundly in his Yaletown apartment. Vancouver’s fire brigadiers have announced that they have not the slightest intention of turning off the sirens, since, um, pedestrians and drivers really ought to be warned to get out of the way of three-ton machines hurtling down streets at 100 km per hour.

I am cursed by Superman-like hearing at night that can pick up the sound of a rubber pin falling on carpet. The slightest bump can wake me from a slumber and jumpstart my heart into a less than serene wakefulness.

That’s why I knew I couldn’t live downtown. Surely a man of Sullivan’s keen intellect would have understood that emergency vehicle operators just can’t shut off their noisemakers to ensure everyone gets a good night’s sleep.

There are some new condos coming on to the market right in my neighborhood in Mount Pleasant, though. Perhaps the mayor could find some quieter digs a little closer to Vancouver City Hall?

A new Canadian-based front develops in the war of decency and respect for human rights versus fascism and terror: The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee website has officially launched.

Our members believe that Canada’s continuing involvement in the UN-supported mission in Afghanistan is necessary. We have the support of Canadians from across the political spectrum and from all walks of life.

We are concerned that debate in Canada about this mission has excluded Afghans and ignored Afghan public opinion. That debate has been manipulated for partisan reasons by those who have failed to fully consider the consequences for Afghans and for the region if Canadian troops were to withdraw prematurely.

Check out our principles. If you agree with them, please join the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

Congratulations to tireless BC author and journalist Terry Glavin, fearless and eloquent CW4WA activist, organizer and consultant Lauryn Oates, lightning-fast writer and web magician Ian King and website design guru Rob Wilson for their efforts in getting this important work done in record time. My own contribution has been modest by comparison, but I am nonetheless proud to have done my small part.