New Media

The “BUYcott Israel” counter-demonstration on Sunday outside the Mountain Equipment co-op in Vancouver drew a fair amount of attention, signatures of support and of course, many new co-op memberships for MEC. I’m happy to say I attended Sunday’s festivities, meant to counter the previous day’s shenanigans by what I’m told was a drenched and ignored group of Israel-bashers.

I’d intended to just sort of drop by as a sympathetic observer, but soon got politely shanghaied into holding a sign saying “Support MEC Ethical Sourcing Policy” and hobnobbing front and center with pedestrians (Indeed, the record of the event produced by Aha Media, with so many shots of yours truly, might leave many to assume I was the organizer!). I stayed for a while, enjoying the chance to talk with others about the issues and the motivations behind the boycott campaign, which seem to be less about human rights and more about a very cynical and one-sided view of Middle East politics.

One interesting note from Canada-Israel Committee rep Dan Schloss about the unintended irony of Saturday’s boycotters, who advocate buying Palestinian products at the same time that they condemn the purchase of Israel-made products (even if they meet stringent ethical purchasing standards): “The boycotters assume that because we’re pro-Israel that we’re ‘anti-Palestinian,’ ironically and tragically showing the real bigoted and hateful motivations behind the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Actually, by asking their supporters to buy Palestinian products, they essentially have the exact same policy Netanyahu does with regards to supporting the Palestinian economy.”

In case you were wondering, I did actually pick up a MEC membership yesterday. A small show of support for the cause.

Euthanasia for human beings is still fairly hotly debated because the the concept of quality of life is so poorly understood. After all, even some people with the most debilitating and painful conditions can still lead relatively satisfying and extraordinarily productive, even inspiring lives — think Stephen Hawking or Terry Fox. When our physical bodies break down, excepting those poor souls suffering from absolute paralysis or constant murderous pain, it is still theoretically possible to carry on a social existence and rely to a greater extent on our minds to generate new sources of satisfaction; a life of the mind, if you will.

It’s different for animals. They operate mainly on a physical level, motivated by instinct. They cannot compensate on another level when their physical nature is undermined. When an animal is suffering with no reasonable chance of recovery, the most humane thing to do is put them down.

As such, this story really got me steaming mad. “No-kill” shelters clearly don’t work:

He is described by some as a combative dictator whose limited approach to euthanasia has done more harm than good, causing the suffering of kittens like Betsy, whose eye ulcerations had become so bad that sores developed on her cornea.

Two cats and two dogs have been euthanized since Thursday’s raid on the shelter, while an inspection in June revealed a kitten with a fractured skull and a cat whose skin was peeling away due to liver disease.

He said the trap was humane, meant only to hold an animal, but that it clearly hadn’t been checked in up to a year.

Peaches, 10, had bone cancer. Her owner was responsible and had her euthanized to end her pain

If 30 nations pull everything out and Afghanistan reverts to Taliban-land hosting the Al Queda hotel, how is that good for Afghans?

The “troops out now” propaganda machine that is Malalai Joya refused to answer my more polite version of this question a few years back when I talked to her on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. I’m guessing she won’t drop by my blog to leave an answer in the comments, but you never know. She certainly isn’t trying to answer that question on her little book tour. Ah, well.

From my article in the Mark:

Afghan politician Malalai Joya is the darling of the left’s “Troops-Out-Now” movement. She was a member of Afghanistan’s parliament until she (truthfully enough) condemned her fellow politicians for being warlords and gangsters. These days she’s on a book tour to promote her ideas on how Afghanistan can emerge from the carnage of the last eight years. Her solution? Total withdrawal of international support for Afghanistan.

Joya’s rhetoric is indistinguishable from the Taliban’s own propaganda talking points in too many ways. We know that as hard as life is for Afghan women at present, it was much worse when the Taliban was in charge. The question then is not just why Joya is saying these things when she must know in her heart that an international withdrawal will lead to a resumption of the Taliban’s misogynist brutality. The real question is why some in the West, where freedom and human rights for both genders are well established, are so eager to listen to this quisling.

Child poverty is still a big problem in British Columbia. Indeed, our child poverty rate is the highest in the country, and 150,000 kids are affected. It’s hard to imagine so much misery in a society that is one of the wealthiest and healthiest on Earth. Then again, why imagine? You only have to wander over to Vancouver’s downtown eastside to see how people are living on the fringes.

April Smith of Aha Media, 24 and living in the downtown eastside, provides a powerful and moving description of her own challenges in growing up in poverty in Vancouver. You can listen to her full interview on the CBC here.

My hastily done transcription provides the following highlights:

I had parents that were really abusive. There was never enough money. I faced a lot of cruelty. I have a lot of scars on my body. There are more on my soul. It’s something that still affects me today.

I remember being in elementary school and being teased because I didn’t have the proper outfit. I couldn’t go on field trips because we couldn’t afford it. We didn’t have enough food in the house… I remember sleeping in the cold.

It’s been a long journey. I’ve been homeless for many years. I remember sleeping on streets, standing in the food lineups. I’ve been on own since I was 12. I was just trying to survive, standing in lineups, trying to find warm shelter, warm clothes, struggling with my own image, my own self esteem.

Sometimes it meant trying to find protection and shelter in different ways that I never thought I would ever get into. That’s including aligning myself in different relationships. Sometimes with poverty comes violence, trauma and abuse towards women and it can affect the rest of your life.

Learn more about Aha Media’s new-media hyper local citizen journalists, including April Smith, here. They’ve got an incredible story, and this dynamic team helps our community tell incredible stories.

April Smith of Aha Media interviews Jeffrey in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Once again, a targeted economic boycott against Israeli goods is directed against a Canadian business. This time (actually the second time), it’s Mountain Equipment Co-op. Protesters are expected to picket MEC stores on November 28, presumably bearing Palestinian flags, kaffia scarves and literature excoriating the Jewish state. Will these boycotts remain confined to the fringe? The more interesting question is whether the counter-efforts will be embraced by a wider population in solidarity with a democracy — not to mention, those who support a peaceful and prosperous Palestine.

The protesters’ financial impact will hopefully be more than neutralized by the Israel-supporters’ BUYcott events (such as the one taking place at an MEC in Vancouver on Nov. 29), which has had some notable successes. On those occasions, protesters act as magnets for those with opposite aims, who come to buy out the entire stock of Israeli products. This may happen again in MEC’s case, as memberships and Israeli-made water bottles and bras fly off the shelves.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun’s Community of Interest

Before You Boycott Israel…