New Media

Vancouver-based Lauryn Oates is Vice-President of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Coordinator of the Funders’ Network for Afghan Women and an independent consultant specializing in gender equality. Marc André Boivin is Deputy Director of the Réseau francophone de recherche sur les opérations de paix at the University of Montréal. An article they’ve co-written, published in Le Devoir, about the challenges involved in even considering Afghan government talks with the Taliban explains the problem with the approach very well – in French, as one would expect for Le Devoir. Of course, thanks to the wonders of Babelfish, you can read the English (well, sort of) translation of “Canada Must Understand/Include Afghans” here.

As they say, “a true process of peace must hold account of the multiple obstacles which will not fail to be drawn up on its road. More still, such a process should be preceded by consultations with the first concerned: Afghans.”

It appears my recent involvement with the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee has interested certain unethical parties sending me the latest version of the Nigerian bank account spam scam. I’ve copied and pasted the email below for entertainment purposes, since the proposal at least has the benefit of being an inspired piece of creative writing (albeit written all in CAPs. Bad form, really.)

NOTE: For those readers who are so messed up from a Friday night drunk-fest that the statement below appears to be a legitimate and lucrative business opportunity, I stress again that it is a scam. Do not reply to it. However, any law enforcement officials are invited to try to track down the owner of the sender’s email.

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, Fund Partnership in Afghanistan/Treat As Confidential. DEAR SIR, WE ARE MEMBERS OF A SPECIAL COMMITTEE FOR BUDGET AND PLANNING OF THE MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HOUSING(FMWH).THIS COMMITTEE IS PRINCIPALLY CONCERNED WITH CONTRACT AWARDS AND APPROVAL.WITH OUR POSITIONS,WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SECURED FOR OURSELVES THE SUM OF TWO MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US$2.5M). THIS AMOUNT WAS CAREFULLY MANIPULATED BY OVER-INVOICING OF THE RECENT CONTRACT AWARDED TO OUR LATE AFGHANISTAN CONTRACTOR MR.MOHAMMAD AKBAR FOR HOUSING AND STADIUM DEVELOPMENT FOR THE COMING AFRICAN NATIONS CUP TO BE HELD IN GHANA COMING JANUARY 2008. BASED ON INFORMATION GATHERED ABOUT YOU, WE BELIEVE YOU WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO HELP US IN DEPOSITING THIS FUND (US$2.5M) INTO A SAFE ACCOUNT FOR INVESMENT IN AFGHANISTAN.IT HAS BEEN AGREED THAT YOU THE OWNER OF THE ACCOUNT WILL BE COMPENSATED WITH 25% OF THE FUNDS,WHILE WE KEEP 70% AS THE INITIATORS AND 5% WILL BE SET ASIDE TO OFFSET EXPENSES AND PAY THE NECESSARY TAXES.WE INTEND TO USE PART OF OUR OWN SHARE TO IMPORT GOOD FROM YOUR COUNTRY AND AS WELL AS INVESTMENT. THIS IS BECAUSE THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT OF MY COUNTRY IS EMPHASISING ON PROVIDING FOOD AND HOUSING FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS BEFORE THIS YEAR ELECTION,HENCE MACHINERY AND CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT ARE IN HIGH DEMAND OVER HERE. ALL MODALITIES OF THIS TRANSACTION HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY WORKED OUT AND ONCE STARTED WILL NOT TAKE MORE THAN THREE (3) WORKING DAYS, WITH YOUR FULL SUPPORT.THIS TRANSACTION IS 100% RISK FREE. IF THIS PROPOSAL SATISFIES YOU,PLEASE REACH US ONLY BY EMAIL FOR MORE INFORMATION WITH YOUR FULL ADDRESS,TELEPHONE NUMBER,FULL NAME AND BANK DETAILS FOR FUND RELEASE. I AM MAKING ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENT THROUGH A BRITISH MILITARY DIPLOMATIC OFFICER WHO CAN DELIVER THE FUND TO YOU IN SINGAPORE OR DUBAI ONCE WE GET THE INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PIN CODE IN GHANA.THIS IS TO SAFE TIME AND HIGH CHARGES IN THE TRANSFER SINCE THE FUND IS DEPOSITED UNDER SUSPENCE ACCOUNT WHICH CAN BE DESPATCHED WITHOUT CONTROL SINCE THE OFFICER HAS IMMUNITY. ADVICE URGENTLY IF WE CAN PROCEED WITH THE TRANSFER OR APPOINT THE DIPLOMATIC AGENT.I NEED YOU TO RECEIVE THIS FUND BY NEXT WEEK.PLEASE,TREAT AS URGENT AND VERY IMPORTANT AS I NEED THIS FUND TO CONTEST FOR MINISTERIAL POST THIS YEAR ELECTION.I HOPE WE CAN HAVE A GOOD INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP. I WILL ATTACH MY INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT ONCE YOU REPLY AND WILL LIKE YOU TO ATTACH ANY OF YOUR IDENTITY AS BOND OF TRUST AND GUARANTEE.PLEASE DO SEND ALL YOUR COMPANY PROFILE SO THAT I WILL SUBMIT AHEAD OF TIME FOR THE ONCOMING MARCH ROAD/HOUSING CONTRUCTION AWARD. YOURS TRULLY, BARRISTER JOHN MENSAH. PRIVATE TELEPHONE:00233 27516 6626. PRIVATE EMAIL:barristermensahchambers1@gawab.com NB:THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE NECESSARY TRANSFER DOCUMENT IS READY TO BE SENT TO YOU ONCE YOU RESPOND.

The latest poll from Angus Reid on the Afghan Mission has 61 per cent of Canadians wanting us to pull out as scheduled in 2009. But perhaps the poll really wasn’t asking the right kind of questions. Take a poll (or two) below to provide your own opinion. Multiple answers are possible.

The latest media bomb from Afghanistan about Canadian troops abusing prisoners is not good.

The facts as they’ve been reported thus far don’t seem to merit the attention the incidents are getting. Taliban prisoners who were being “non-compliant,” “extremely belligerent” and “totally unco-operative” received injuries including “lacerations on L and R eyebrows; contusions and swelling of both eyes; lacerations on L cheek; lacerations center of forehead; abrasions on chin; multiple contusions on both upper arms, back and chest.”

It’s not on the same scale as the Somalia Affair. It’s barely on the same scale as Mike Tyson’s ear-biting incident with Evander Holyfield.

But incidents like this don’t lose wars. The new American proposal on opium eradication in Afghanistan might.

Canadians ought to be protesting this strategy in the streets, since it (and our current policy) is putting Canadian soldiers’ lives at risk. The current strategy of eradicating poppy crops and going after drug smugglers that fund the Taliban only alienates the vast majority of farmers in Afghanistan and takes military resources away from fighting the main enemy.

Allowing Afghan farmers to grow opium, letting NATO countries or the Afghan government buy the crop and sell it to pharmaceutical companies to process cheap Aspirin for the developing world is a win-win-win situation. This idea has been bandied about for at least six months now. It would win the hearts of people on the ground, bankrupt the Taliban and literally take some of the pain out of living in a developing country.

In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

So, what’s he done for Cuba lately?

Cubans traded one dictatorship for another. The island nation still lacks the political and economic freedoms shared by hundreds of millions of people throughout this hemisphere.

Nonetheless, Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC) has organized a celebration of the dictator’s 80th birthday – Viva Fidel! 80 More Years! – for Saturday, Dec. 2, to take place at a local church. I didn’t know Canadian churches were in the habit of hosting birthday celebrations for repressive foreign dictators.

This is pretty much par for the course in a city where Che Guevara T-shirts are about as common as Lululemon yoga attire. Hopefully, few of the people sporting his image are aware of Che’s legacy as the greatest failed mass-murderer in human history (if he’d had the launch codes instead of the Russians during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Miami, New York and Washington would be dusty radioactive ruins).

I suspect, though, that just as the local antiwar coalition cannot find a single immigrant Afghan in support of their protest against Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, there are no Cuban refugees living in Vancouver who will attend this birthday party for a dictator. One can hope, anyway.