New Media

A good summary of the bad things that happen when religious extremists get a firm grip on the levers of power, Freakin’ Fundamentalists from the Georgia Straight:

On November 18, a 20-year-old divorcee who, because she had a boyfriend, was stoned to death for “adultery”. (Yes, these wackos call it “adultery”, even if a person is divorced.) On November 6, it was a 33-year-old man who was stoned to death for adultery. His girlfriend is scheduled to be killed the same way once she gives birth. Last year, these same fanatics murdered a 13-year-old girl for “adultery” after she was gang-raped. And one thousand people turned up to cheer—or at least watch—the killing…

On the whole, I agree with much of what Vancouver writer Mike Cowie says in his op-ed, though I think it may go a bit over the top in seeming to imply that religion itself is the root of evil. After all, some of the most avowedly secular political movements in the twentieth century brought on equally repugnant results.

A proposal from Chemainus First Nations member George Harris to rename Georgia Strait the Salish Sea in recognition of the land’s original inhabitants is getting some serious consideration from the BC provincial politicians (UPI).

I’m not really against the idea, but what’s the point? Harris contends that the new name would help people recognize the indigenous heritage of the Coast Salish people (as opposed to reminding people that King George III happened to be the boss of Britain when Captain George Vancouver sailed through this neck of the woods). But even the most ignorant backwoods half-wit already knows that First Nations Peoples were the original inhabitants of Canada, and anyone of legal breathing age in BC knows about the Salish people.

Half of our Canadian place names already come from Aboriginal names – Toronto, Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Kelowna, Kitsilano… Heck, our country’s name, Canada, was adopted from a First Nations name.

Is it Harris’ idea that the renaming of Georgia Strait will be a one-off stunt, or is the idea to rename the rest of Canada as well? Shall we do away with Vancouver, Prince Edward Island, Montreal, Surrey, Gimli (quick, where is it?) and all of the other “foreign” place names? What about their heritage?

Honestly, renaming the straight or any other place wouldn’t be that big deal on its own, except to map-makers and local historians. But what exactly are we trying to achieve, here? Wiping out the historic stain of foreign cultural imperialism for all time? Having a little fun confusing the tourists? Inducing the local paper, the Georgia Straight, to change its name to the Salish Spectator?

George, feel free to comment.

A Falun Gong protester gets shot at and beaten up by three attackers outside of a a foreign embassy. Not exactly surprising stuff, except that the building was the Chinese consulate in Vancouver.

Falun Gong protesters have held a permanent vigil to protest human rights violations against their group outside the embassy for six years. Despite objections from Mayor Sam Sullivan over a year ago, the protest still stands. Has the Chinese government’s patience finally been exhausted?

If not, what other explanation could there be? It’s not like the victim was strutting down Granville Street around midnight, gawking at the testosterone and alcohol-fueled goons who have taken over our entertainment district.

One niggling question is why the mainstream media hasn’t picked up on this incident yet. It has been four days since the assault.

The Epoch Times’ editorial line is unabashedly anti-Communist China and pro-Falun Gong, so one has to read even their straight-up news articles like the one reporting this incident with a skeptical eye. But why isn’t the Vancouver Sun, the Province or even the Georgia Straight reporting an assault outside a foreign embassy involving a gun?

Just asking.

Another righteous rant against Islamophobia blots the pages of Vancouver’s Georgia Straight.

“Islamophobia is the way in which the Muslim community is constructed as an enemy, a civilizational other,” Itrath Syed, an SFU women’s studies sessional instructor is quoted in the piece. “[It's] the idea that Muslims as a whole are completely homogenous unto themselves, there is no differentiation between Muslims. As a whole, Muslims occupy the opposite of everything that is good in the West.”

The article goes on to condemn Canadian legislation and policy targeting terrorism, which is seen as a weapon to persecute Muslims. Columnist Carlito Pablo and his source’s concern about racist fearmongering is undoubtedly as sincere as it is misplaced.

Canada’s terror legislation didn’t appear out of a vacuum. Muslims as a group are indeed more feared and suspect than other Western minority groups – but this is not owing to some anti-Muslim conspiracy.

Of the countless terror attacks on Western cities, aircraft and favored tourist destinations in the past four decades, it is almost invariably Muslim extremists such as Al Queda responsible.

That this puts a harsh burden of suspicion on perfectly innocent Muslims in our multicultural nation is awful. But to pretend that this fear and suspicion has no legitimate basis, and that the resulting public policy lacks any sense of scale or justice, is perverse.

An article in today’s Georgia Straight coughs up some pretty toxic drivel about carbon credits as a solution to Canada’s environmental problems.

The Georgia Straight article actually admits that carbon trading has a lot of drawbacks criticized by leading environmentalists – not least of which is the lack of accountability for carbon-traded projects that are supposed to make up for polluters’ ongoing operations. Unfortunately, it leaves such critical information until the final couple of paragraphs, after about 1,000 words of gut-check anti-Conservative, pro-Kyoto propaganda.

Canada is a major polluter, worse in some respects than the American gas-guzzling empire that many self-righteous Canadians are the first to criticize. There seems to be no real debate left regarding humanity’s carbon-producing societies being behind a potentially catastrophic (well, for us, maybe not cockroaches) climate change. Something needs to be done.

But carbon trading isn’t it. Buying carbon credits on the international market doesn’t actually reduce global warming – it just makes countries billions of dollars poorer.

Instead of sending our currency abroad into a black (green?) hole, why not invest those billions in Canada on renewable energy research, or the production of tried and tested renewable energy sources: wind, solar, and yes, nuclear power?