Now For Something A Little Different …

  

It’s election time again in the province of Ontario.  The three parties have been slavering at the thought of finally getting to sling mud and rhetoric at each other once more, under the guise of convincing the electorate that only one of them is truly fit to govern, while the others are criminally incompetent. Same old schtick, different year. Or maybe not…

Ontario doesn’t need to spend more money on finger-pointing and name- calling. This province has been the driving force of Canada, but mismanagement and negligence have only exacerbated growing problems: crumbling infrastructures in major cities, the billion-dollar gas plant debacle, declines in support for health care and education. The arithmetic of politics scares me. I’ve never been able to rationalize how job cuts and spending cuts will actually create more jobs and economic prosperity. I don’t think I’ve actually seen this equation successfully play out anywhere.The truth is, whatever happens here, for better or worse, directly impacts the rest of the country.

What Ontario desperately needs is a party with a real leader at the helm. However, not one of the major parties currently running offers that. I’m sorry, but Kathleen Wynne, Andrea Horwath, and Tim Hudak are not leadership contenders. None of these individuals inspires confidence in me. What do they inspire? Let’s do a quick run-down.

Kathleen Wynne, LIberal Party: she got the dirty end of the stick when she inherited the party and its hidden secrets from Dalton “I’m running now before I get caught” McGinty.  Really. When someone cuts and runs as fast as Dalton did, you have to know something awful is going to hit that proverbial fan. And it did. Scandals to the tune of billions of tax-payers dollars. And cover-ups: remember that tech who was the boyfriend of somebody wiping incriminating data from the hard drives, and Kathleen didn’t know. Sorry, but Kathleen’s a big girl. She walked into this with her eyes open. And yes, her party is still responsible for the mess her predecessor made. That’s how I see it. That’s how the electorate sees it. That’s how Kathleen needs to see it. She can’t play the “I didn’t do it” card and expect that to absolve her from the sins of the past. The Ontario Liberals need to pull a “Phoenix rising from the ashes” in order to move on. Raze the existing party. Start completely fresh. And put a dynamic, appealing, proven-results leader at the helm.  Ideally, someone who takes over the party, remakes it and convinces us by action, not words. We need to see that strength and fight in order to believe again. Kathleen is not delivering.

Andrea Horwath NDP: She’s sincere, committed, comes across as nice. But when you are at the helm of the underdog party, nice is not enough. You need to be bigger, bolder and constantly challenging the other two parties. That’s what Jack Layton did so well. He nipped at the heels of the Liberals and Conservatives, actively pointing out their failings with accurate details. And then offering up recommendations.That’s why people believed in the NDP. As they did with Bob Rae. Like Jack, he had vision and great ideas. To lead this party, you have to be better than the leaders of the other two parties: smarter, braver, stronger, and unquestionably trustworthy. Because the NDP is the party that keeps the other guys in line. There was a brief shining moment when I thought the NDP could pull a dark horse coming straight up the middle, but then Andrea had to do damage control for her party. Given that,  Andrea comes across only as satisfactory. That might run the party but it won’t be enough to govern the province.

TIm Hudak PC:  Be afraid. Be very afraid. There was something about him I did not like from the beginning, and then when he announced all the cuts he was making to the public sector, I knew why. He is like the second coming of Mike Harris. We all remember Mike. Cut to the bone and then cut some more. And people in Hudak’s party don’t even like him. Apparently, he’s a little tyrannical. But this is the man promising to create a million jobs. Evidently he’s a magician and not a mathematician. I’m not surprised. Tory party sleight of hand is just how they’ve always done things. Being trust-worthy is not something I could ever accuse them of.

So where does that leave Ontario? What each leader offers to bring to the table and what they’ll actually serve up will be very different. I can only hope for someone who doesn’t make things worse than they already are. I hate when the choice has to be the lesser of three evils.

 

The Heart of Darkness

Man’s inhumanity to man – Joseph Conrad literally wrote the book on it, back in 1899.  His travels to the “dark continent” where he witnessed first-hand the negative benefits of imperialism compelled him to write the story. Over one hundred years have passed, but the scars of imperialism have not healed. Instead, greed, hatred and intolerance have spread like an infection to exacerbate the existing tensions between rival tribes, nations, warlords.

The story Conrad penned has evolved into multiple chapters, increasingly horrific. Across the 20th century, every decade had its own African crisis: Eritrea in the sixties; Ethiopia in the seventies; South Africa in the 80s; Rwanda in the 90s; and as the century changed, Sudan. This decade, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo have become maelstroms of violence and terror.  What has happened in Africa over the past century is a graphic illustration of how hatred develops and mutates.  In our civilized norm, killing is wrong. To attack women and children is unthinkable. Yet, this has become the legacy of imperialism in Africa.

Case in point: the three hundred school girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria three weeks ago, held by the militant Islamic group Boko Haram. Their name means “Western education is forbidden.” The girls were taken from what was considered an elite private school, where they were encouraged to pursue careers and goals that are disparaged and forbidden by these militant Islamic groups. In pursuit of expressing their hatred of all things Western, the group has staged numerous attacks with impunity. While the group itself is relatively new, founded in 2002, their hatred stems back to events in 1903, when Britain took control over the region that is now southern Cameroon, Niger and the northern part of Nigeria. In an ironic twist, education has become the dividing point, inaccessible to many poor Islamic families, unimportant to wealthier ones, and opportune to Jihadists looking to recruit through their schools. These Islamic schools are now becoming part of the problem while being symptoms of a larger issue.

The legacy of imperialism has spawned successions of governments that collapse from the cancer of corruption and greed.  As decades pass, these countries are left increasingly vulnerable to the ongoing hatreds between tribes, regions and religions. It has reached the point where I think the rest of the world cannot reasonably expect these nations to resolve their issues themselves. In Nigeria, it has taken three weeks and international outcry to make the government there truthfully admit how many girls actually were taken and that they cannot do anything to help them. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathon is going to need more than just good luck to face the challenges ahead for his country. As major powers now step forward to offer their assistance, I would advise they be prepared for more acts like this by Boko Haram, and for more groups like them, because they believe they hold the upper hand.  And for their victims, especially those school girls, they do. Unless we find the way to show them otherwise.

Jihadists don’t play by our rules. Terrorism is how they force us to play by theirs. Verbal condemnation and traditional diplomacy are useless.  What needs to happen is something unprecedented. An internationally-sanctioned alliance that strategically invades the region in Nigeria where Boko Haram’s stronghold is believed to be and removes the militants the way a surgeon cuts out a malignancy. It’s a start, but the problem is that the insurgents will keep coming back, and maintaining that vigilance against them is beyond the ability of many African nations. The result will be the formation of growth of terrorists that spills out into the world. This truly is the heart of darkness. It isn’t just Nigeria’s problem anymore. It’s everyone’s problem, and unless we get involved in helping maintain security there, our own security will not be enough for what is coming.

Write Here, Write Now

“Right Here, Right Now.” Big song by Jesus Jones in the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall had just fallen and every day seemed like a brave, new world. It resonated with me, because it captured the energy and wonder of the moment. Anything was possible, and we were going to be part of what came next. After studying poli sci in university, where the focus was on the negatives of the conflict between the USSR and the US, and then the situation in the middle east between Israel and everyone else, to see the rule of Russia’s iron fist topple with a brick wall represented so much more. We were riding the crest of a huge wave of change and it was thrilling.

“There is no other place I’d rather be.” Fast forward twenty years. Surprise – I didn’t get to pursue a career as a political analyst but am following through on that now. Hence this blog. There is a famous Chinese saying: May you live in interesting times. At this moment, there are so many important events I could cover: Putin in Russia; Syria; the increasing threat of Boko Haram in Nigeria; Israel; Afghanistan; Iran; North Korea; China; climate change; fracking. I am engrossed, fascinated, inspired, driven to just keep abreast of what’s going on and trying to fit pieces from the past together with the present to see where the future is.

“Watching the world wake up from history.”  There is no leaving the past behind. We need to carry forward the lessons learned and unlearned, because history is a harsh teacher, and repeats itself in the cruelest ways. I am watching CNN and State of the Union as they discuss the unravelling of Ukraine, and debate whether or not this is going to be a civil war. Actually, Candy Crowley is trying her damnedest to get these experts to admit that yes, this is a burgeoning civil war. And while they can’t bring themselves to accuse him directly, the allegations are being made that Putin is behind fomenting this explosion of internal violence.

They are reiterating right now what we’ve covered in my previous blog posts. Civil wars are so ugly because they tear apart lives and families, laying waste to prosperity and normalcy as they destroy a country from within. Putin is actively setting things up within Ukraine to destabilize the nation so that when the time is right, he can step in and take it. This is how Putin has played the game all along. He wants Ukraine, in its entirety, and he will take nothing less.

I read a recent piece by Stratford Security saying that Obama was doing what he had to do by imposing ineffective sanctions, because he had no other actionable choices. He couldn’t march his troops into Ukraine. How exactly is he supposed to strong-arm Russia, or more accurately, Putin, into stepping back? At this point, we cannot legally prove Putin is behind things, and in the murky waters of diplomatic politics, you have to be very careful about what you say.  As a blogger, I can call things as I see them because I enjoy a greater degree of freedom of expression than do diplomats or world leaders. Carelessly firing accusations can be just as dangerous as waving around a loaded gun.

So, I’ll say what I believe needs to be said, bring things to light, and take the risks for those who can’t speak freely. There’s a lot going on out there in the world and I’ve got a lot to say. Write Here, Write Now.

Enough is Enough

Enough. We have all had enough. The world has had enough of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

He has declared his need to take a break from his post as mayor, and from the current candidate race just starting.  Is that a collective sigh of relief I hear? Ford is promising to go into rehab for real this time. We aren’t holding our breath. Fact is, we stopped caring. We just want somebody who actually shows up to work sober, coherent and prepared to do the job they were elected to do. Without embarrassing us on an international scale.

Thursday’s Toronto Star featured all the gory details of Ford’s latest lamentable lampooning. Only, it isn’t funny at all.  The still shots are of a middle-aged man,  dangerously obese, holding a crack pipe.  He doesn’t look like he is responsible for his own well-being.  How can he be responsible for a city of several million?  There are numerous accounts of his drinking binges, his use of cocaine, his predilection for partying hard at exclusive night spots. Any other person would have been arrested by now. He gets to plead for sympathy. “I have a problem …”

Yes, Rob. Indeed you do have a problem. This city and its long-suffering constituents have had enough. Everyone but you knows what you’ve been doing. I feel sorry for your wife and kids, but I have no sympathy for you. The final nail in this coffin you have built for yourself was the disgusting remark about Karen Stintz, which establishes the level of contempt you hold for women. In this country, that is unacceptable. It should be unacceptable anywhere.

Rob, if you love this city like you say you do, you won’t put us through anymore. You’ll do the right thing and step down, which you should have done almost a year ago.  There is no amount of “help” that will fix you and make you a better mayor, let alone a better person, because you refuse to own what you have done. You have surrounded yourself by enablers. Your are that emperor in the story, the one who refused to believe the truth, and instead deluded himself with his own grandiosity. God forbid you parade around naked but what you have done is on full display now for the world to see, and those who told you only what you wanted to hear all this time are no better than the self-serving merchants that sold the emperor nothing but a bill of goods.

The game is over, and you, Mayor Ford, are out.