Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada "Of Interest To Me" Nov01 -- Nov15, 2003
Email: mike -at- mikecampbell dot net
The opinions expressed on this website are those of the author alone, and are not necessarily those of his employer or any organization with which he is affiliated.
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Dawson Speaks
Saturday, November 15, 2003
That's 8 posts in a row for me over at Switching To Glide! Read about the new Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros album, New Brunswick's Isaac & Blewett, Ryan Adams, Black Pool, a new b-sides release from The Cure, and more.
1:59pm
Bloody Hell, this could be huge.
GENEVA — North Korean diplomats said yesterday the nation was willing to give up its nuclear deterrent, stop testing and exporting missiles and permit annual inspections as part of a grand bargain with its four neighbors and the United States.
In exchange, the diplomats said, the North expected written security guarantees and compensation for economic losses suffered by a decision to halt construction of two South Korean-made nuclear power plants in the North.
In addition, the envoys said the United States must pledge not to hinder the economic development of the North, particularly its dealings with Japan and South Korea.
Two diplomats, in a rare, wide-ranging interview, reiterated Pyongyang's position that it might be prepared to consider President Bush's proposal for written guarantees on security "positively" if they were linked to simultaneous diplomatic actions demanded by the communist regime.
1:31pm
Not your standard film critic, Charles Krauthammer likes the new naval film, Master and Commander, drawn from the Patrick O'Brien novels.
The TV trailer promises " 'Gladiator' at sea." But the movie is really about the nature of naval life in the age of sail, the nature of command and the nature of friendship (between the ship's captain and the ship's doctor).
Although entirely fictional, "Master and Commander" might be considered the most dramatic and brilliant naval documentary ever made. It should be on the reading (viewing) list of every college course on the history of naval warfare. Weir has given unbelievable attention to every detail of the period -- the cookware, the rigging, the uniform buttons, the drinking songs, the instruments of surgery.
And the mode of speech. This is where I worry about subtlety. I speak English reasonably well, but I could only make out about half of the dialogue. That is because Weir has maintained an unswerving fidelity to the period dialect (the 1805 action is situated about halfway between us and Shakespeare's time, and so are the diction and syntax). Pepper that with nautical nouns you have never heard of, often issued in Russell Crowe's barely audible drawl, place them in a cacophony of ship sounds (another example of Weir's fidelity to authenticity), and you sometimes wish that the movie had been accompanied by subtitles.
But, Christopher Hitchens writes on how the film got the Patrick O'Brien novels wrong.
The film's trailer is here. Here is the film's website, where you can familiarize yourself with some nautical terms and sail names and their uses. For example:
The bitter end: (the last part of something) Ends of rigging on a ship would be fastened with wooden bitts. The term refers to the end of the rope.
11:39am
Over at Innocents Abroad, Collin is starting a series of features on the future of France.
French thinkers, from a variety of backgrounds and persuasions, have begun a discussion, not so much about American imperialism or the situation in Iraq, but about the state of the French soul. From across the political spectrum – liberals, conservatives, Trotskyites, communists, socialists and the far-right – the argument is being made that in all domains, France is collapsing. Economically stagnant, socially divided, politically paralyzed, militarily enfeebled and diplomatically isolated – this, according to numerous French thinkers, is the plight of contemporary France. Some have gone so far as to suggest that France is turning into something of a democratic pariah among advanced western democracies. These are serious accusations, deserving of consideration.
By focusing on French authors, I hope to profit from those most familiar with France itself. I also hope to demonstrate that these are not mere hostile barbs emanating from an American neo-conservative (especially as I am neither American nor a neo-conservative). Rather, intelligent and thoughtful French writers are raising these questions, and doing so in a way that is both more immediately relevant than foreign criticism and more biting.
11:06am
Free North Korea recommends Jasper Becker's book "Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine".
I'm currently working my way through one of the most heartbreaking books I've ever read, and the sad fact is that it describes one of the greatest of all human tragedies, but one which most of us here in the US still know nothing about. This is the HUGE famine in China due to Mao's "Great Leap Forward" campaign in 1958-62.
Let me emphasize one thing. Anyone involved in setting US policy on North Korea should read this book NOW. The number of parallels between what happened in China in these terrible years (and in the USSR earlier) and what is happening now in North Korea are too many to describe here. There are many, many similarities.
Although they have at times acknowledged the depth of the misery, the Chinese government has largely kept discussion of these events subdued. Many of the perpetrators have never been punished. The magnitude of the misery perhaps qualifies this period as the worst act of mass murder of the 20th century.
Becker's book contains info on the famine in North Korea.
10:29am
To Michael Demmons! who, btw, works in an excellent usage of that merry little breezes phrase.
8:37am
Friday, November 14, 2003
Over at my folks the other night, my Mom recalled an old nugget (shrapnel fragment?) from my past.
I think we were talking about my niece or something and Mom recalled a line that I had written in a story from Grade 2. Grade 2, now. Age 7.
Not sure what the story was about, or what was going fast, but the line was "... faster than the merry little breezes of Old Mother West Wind." Mom said that line has just been stuck in her head all these years. As you can imagine, my wife liked that one. Sheesh. Thanks Mom! I imagine I lifted it from some story I had read.
Faster than merry little breezes! Man, that's fast!
Feel free to use that one on your kids during story time. Or not.
11:15pm
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For the second
year in a row, my alma mater,
St. Francis Xavier University, has been named the
Number One undergrad school in Canada by
Maclean's magazine. Huzzah! |
Also, Number One in Alumni Support (natch).
11:07pm
Unsurprisingly, I subscribe to Finest Hour, the quarterly journal of The Churchill Centre and International Churchill Societies. Well, as a member, I receive the journal as a matter of course.
While I provide some financial contribution to my alma mater ($10/month - not much but more than many do), I also send a subscription of Finest Hour to the Angus L. MacDonald Library at St. Francis Xavier University. It's only a $20 addition to my Churchill Centre membership ~ C$5/issue, including shipping.
So, if you have an area of interest and subscribe to a related journal or magazine, why not see if they offer reduced subscription rates and send one off to your alma mater. Some kid might thank you for it.
10:52pm
Churchill & the BBC (anonymous mugwumpery)
Andrew Sullivan provides some interesting quotes from WSC:
Another wonderful tidbit from the greatest Briton:
Churchill's doctor, Lord Moran, favored continuing the BBC monopoly. When he questioned Churchill about it, the great man exploded. "For eleven years they kept me off the air. They prevented me from expressing views which have proved to be right. Their behavior has been tyrannical. They are honeycombed with Socialists - probably with Communists."
True again today. They no longer have a monopoly - but they still force Brits to pay for propaganda.
I'd not heard these ones. Lord Moran's memoirs ("Diaries of Lord Moran: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965") are quite common in used bookstores, but I still haven't picked him up. Yet.
Sullivan also provides this quote from one of Churchill's speeches to the House:
"These well-meaning gentlemen of the British Broadcasting Corporation have absolutely no qualifications and no claim to represent British public opinion. They have no right to say that they voice the opinions of English or British people whatever. If anyone can do that it is His Majesty's government; and there may be two opinions about that. It would be far better to have sharply contrasted views in succession, in alteration, than to have this copious stream of pontifical, anonymous mugwumpery with which we have been dosed for so long." - from a speech in the House of Commons, February 22, 1933
Imagine, me getting my Churchill stuff from some British guy! Better pick up my socks. 8-)
10:39pm
Haven't quite finished reading ROTK yet, but am well beyond the climax. (There's a long ending to this book.)
I'd forgotten what an exhilarating, exciting book it is; haven't read it in a good 20 years. Reeeally looking forward to the new film.
Let's watch the trailer again. Plenty of nitpiks just from the trailer, but I won't bother.
10:21pm
NBC's Bob Arnott reports from Iraq:
Arnot recounted the challenges faced by troops in hostile areas, but countered the negative image of the Iraqi situation he knows Americans get from TV news.
Arnot argued: “The real question is, given all the death and destruction that you see on television in the United States, what’s the real deal out here? The fact is in 85 percent of the country, it’s calm, it’s stable, it’s moving forward. You find a lot of places like Horia [sp?], where we were today, and Kadame [sp] where they actually like or even love Americans.”
Touring a shopping area, Arnot relayed how, “from what you see on TV from Baghdad you’d think that, with the mortars and rockets, that this was a city under siege.” In fact, he contended, “nothing could be further from the truth in many neighborhoods.” Arnot sounded like a spokesman for the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens observed, as he admired the selection of merchandise available: “They also have here some of the latest fashions, they will tell you from Milan, Paris, and Damascus. Here’s another store here, ladies clothing with jeans, the latest shoes, nice pocket books.” [...]
Matthews inquired of Arnot: “Bob, can our military locate, target and destroy our enemies over there right now?”
Arnot: “Well, they have a lot of help. They have been able to take 75 percent of the terrorists off the street in Mosul. What they’re finding, especially after some of the big bombings like the RCIC, a lot more people are coming forward. They’re like their 9/11 there. They really hate a lot of these guys. You have a number of different elements. At the very top, you have the old regime. They took two generals off the street in Fallujah the other day. Tens of millions of dollars to spend. The ominous thing is that they’re finding the really bad neighborhoods have a combination of the Islamists, Wahhabis, Ansar al-Islam and the old regime. That’s where you have the strange collusion that’s sort of morphing into a quasi-Islamic revolution here. And at the bottom, just a bunch of bad guys.
I don't get "Hardball" any more (I don't get either CNBC or MSNBC, whichever one its on now). I used to watch it quite often; I get a kick out of Chris Matthews. Don't always agree with him, but I like the guy. I was actually a fan before I found out that he's a director of The Churchill Centre in Washington.
(via Instapundit) 10:15pm
There's a hotel not far from my house that has a letter in its neon sign burned out. Whenever I go by, I think of a mid-1970s sitcom called HOT L BALTIMORE. It came on after Kolchak: The Night Stalker in the first half of 1975.
I don't think I really have any memory of this show. I know I watched it, but I couldn't tell you what happened in it or relay a single scene or moment. It featured an ensemble cast, and starred Conchatta Ferrell, Richard Masur, Charlotte Rae (what 70s sitcom did not feature Charlotte Rae?) and James (Babe the pig/Zephram Cochrane) Cromwell.
This Jump The Shark reader comments:
One of the shows that pushed the envelope - pushed it further than almost any program before or since. It never jumped - it had no time to jump. But I remember an episode that still comes up today in conversations about TV firsts. In the program Richard Masur played the son of the woman that owned the hotel. She was apparently domineering and controlling, much like the mother on WKRP commanded Gordon Jump. Anyway, in this episode Masur gets enraged about something, finally breaks out of his wimpy ways and goes against her explicit instructions (or something to that effect). The other characters jump instantly jump in with warnings of his mother's reaction - to which Masur replies, "Mother can get f**ked!!" This was the first and still one of the few times I heard the word used on prime time network television. I remember racing downstairs to tell my parents about this amazing occurrence (my parents were classic 70's liberals). Having only seen this episode that one time I have frequently questioned whether I actually heard that word or not. All I know was it left an enormous impression on me.
The show ran on ABC from January to June, 1975, before being cancelled. It was developed by Norman Lear and was based on a Broadway play. It looks like it ran last year in Athens, GA.
Prostitutes and leisure suits -- they go together like peanut butter and jelly, right?
They do according to the Town & Gown Players' production of Langford Wilson's "The Hot l Baltimore."
Wilson is known worldwide as a master of combining comedy and drama, a strength which he most strongly exhibited in "Talley's Folly."
Wilson achieves a great mix of the two genres in "The Hot l Baltimore," set in the decomposing remains of a once-luxurious hotel in Baltimore.
Even the "e" is missing from the hotel's marquee, loaning the name "The Hot l Baltimore" to the work.
"It also doesn't have a traditional story -- it's not something that gets wrapped up in the end," said Eric Wagoner, director of the play.
9:55pm
The link is no longer there on the CBC page, but I noted the other day that, of the 500,000 some-odd Liberal Party members, exactly 50% were in the four Atlantic provinces. The most memberships from any province were surprisingly from New Brunswick, which had 28% of the total.
I guess what strikes me the most about this is that the province with the most memberships was not Ontario, and wonder how this bodes for the next election.
9:45pm
I caught most of Bono's speech to the Liberal Party Convention and generally liked it and would say it was a good one. Casual and self-deprecating at first, then much more serious and hard-hitting once he got down to his issues, particularly Third World debt forgiveness and the African AIDS crisis.
It's easy to roll your eyes and dismiss him, but he should be thanked for helping to press politicians on these issues.
For those who missed it, he made the point that Western nations have failed to live up to their commitment to provide 0.7% of GDP to the Third World, with Europe providing 0.33%, Canada at 0.29% and the U.S. at 0.15% (source: Bono).
Since we're talking stats, it's worth noting that the Bush administration program to fight AIDS in Africa is 50 times that of the Clinton administration. I'm not sure of the numbers (I think it was $21m-ish in '98 and $50m in '99, but not sure where it's been since then), but I do have a feeling that Canada's contribution during the 90s exceeded that of the U.S., relatively speaking. Still, I would bet we've now fallen behind the Bush program.
Bono mentioned the problem of corruption in African nations. It is certainly difficult to hand over money to these thugs and hope it trickles down. It's difficult to deliver under these circumstances, but means must be found.
He also spoke of other corruptions, such as the unfair (agricultural) subsidies and barriers of the Developed World that serve to hinder development in the Third World. (Remember those WTO talks that the moonbats were so happy to stop?)
Bono mentioned that he'd been at the Air Canada Centre before along with his friends Adam, Larry and Edge. What? What about the CNE?? November '87! That was the real concert you should have referred to. Right boys?
CBC commentators seemed to think that Martin wouldn't have brought Bono up to the podium if he wasn't prepared to move on these issues once he takes over.
Mansbridge also went to David Halton in Washington, who mentioned that there was a general sigh of relief with respect to the new leadership. No Shamrock Summit, but relations will improve.
9:04pm
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
It was Jimmy Cagney week at our house, as we watched three oldies featuring the Yankee Doodle Dandy himself. Enjoyable stuff; the guy has such a style and presence. An entirely likeable figure, not to mention talented. I'd rather watch any old Hollywood film, warts and all, than most of the crap that's pumped out today. Sure, I lose on the pop-culture factor, but hopefully preserve some sanity.
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The dvd features The Great Guy, Something to Sing About, and Blood On
The Sun. In 'The Great Guy' (1936), Cagney plays Johnny 'Red' Cave, an inspector with the Dep't of Weights and Measures who is trying to crack down on corruption. The type of crime that Cave investigates isn't something we hear of too often these days, i.e. the butcher rigging the scales to rip off the housewife $0.50/lb of chicken, the gas station pumping less than is shown on the pump. Thankfully, we seem to have developed the technology and oversight to keep this stuff at bay. |
In 'Something to Sing About' (1937), Cagney plays former prize-fighter, aspiring actor Terry Rooney. This is a fun one, with Rooney having to hide his marriage and fake a Hollywood romance to keep the studio happy. Lots of song and dance. Fun fight scenes in this one.
'Blood On The Sun' (1945), the most solid film of the three, is a much more patriotic film, and produced by Cagney's brother William. Cagney plays Nick Condon, an American newspaperman in Japan during the late 1930s. He uncovers a plot by a Japanese aristocrat to goad the militarists in the Japanese government to war and eventual world domination. The aristocrat, Baron Tanaka, is found out and offs himself, but not before extracting an oath out of his two militarist minions to carry on with the plan -- the minions being a Colonel Tojo and a Captain Yamamoto.
Toward the end of hostilities, Hollywood's war films began to talk about victories in a partial past tense. The fighting may not have been over, but films started treating it as a fait accompli. Pictures like 13 Rue Madeleine looked for heroes in unsung corners of the struggle, and the Cagney brothers' Blood on the Sun reached further back into history to explain that Japan was a nation hijacked by warlords, and not the land of buck-toothed grinning demons as pictured in everything from cartoons to musicals. I don't think the words 'Jap' or 'Nip' are even used here; it's definitely a bury-the-hatchet movie, politics-wise.
Me thinks it will be a while before Hollywood starts making a fait accompli films about the end of the war on terror.
8:15pm
Despite Michael's kind words about my site yesterday, alas, we saw no Discountblogalanche today. Must have been an off day. 8-)
Appreciate it very much, Michael. Cheers.
7:45pm
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Go read The Flea's post on war poets, and his strong comments following up on Colby Cosh's post regarding our debt.
Cosh suggests glory as the payment due those who sacrifice to defend us. Quite right. There is another debt we owe those people who sacrificed for our liberty. We must act to defend it now. The defense of liberty from the Hitlerites of al-Qaeda, International A.N.S.W.E.R. and their fellow travellers is not only a debt we owe to those who came before us. It is a duty we owe to those will take up the burden in generations to come.
1:03pm
Lest we forget. Go read that letter from yesterday.
This page has some great links, including John McCrea's "In Flanders Fields". I recall an 8th grade teacher drilling this poem into us, time after time after time until we had all memorized it. I thank him for that.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.- John McCrae
(It has always kind of bugged me that the Montreal Canadiens lifted this poem and stuck it up on their dressing room wall to become part of Habs lore and club motto.)
Alan posts a solemn pic of remembrance and discusses the Canadian vets from the First World War who are still living. Discount Blogger features a link to the Royal Canadian Legion site.
Colby Cosh writes in the National Post on How to repay the debt we owe our vets.
The inevitable disappearance of these veterans has ominous implications for all of us, and not only insofar as they are reminders of mortality. For no other country does the Great War have such a prominent place in the national narrative. We entered 1914 as post-Edwardian colonials in a land of fluid borders, uncertain of our future and hazy about our position in the world. A visionary handful of politicians and generals used the war, consciously, as a transforming and binding experience. Whatever common national feeling is left to us, after decades of questionable constitutional and political decision-making, is the lingering heritage of that decision, and of the bloodletting that followed.
Whether we will lose that heritage when the living witnesses to the event are gone is an urgent question.
The Halifax Chronicle-Herald has a story on four Cromwell siblings from Digby County, Nova Scotia (western NS on Bay of Fundy shore) who fought for Canada in the Second World War. Irving Cromwell, now 86, went ashore on D-Day. The story also mentions Mr. Joey Niles of Halifax, age 70, who fought in Korea.
I hope to see Bryan Adams' "Remembrance Day" video today, I'll have to watch for it around 11am on Much Music.
Just lads from the farms and boys from the cities
Not meant to be soldiers we lay in the trenches
We'd face the fighting with a smile - or so we said
If only we had known what danger lay ahead
The sky turned to grey as we went into battle
On the fields of Europe young men were fallin'
I'll be back for you someday - it won't be long
If I can just hold on 'til this bloody war is over
The guns will be silent on Remembrance Day
There'll be no more fighting on Remembrance Day
By October of 18 Cambrai had fallen
Soon the war would be over and we'd be returnin'
Don't forget me while I'm gone far away
Well it won't be long 'till I'm back there in your arms again
One day soon - I don't know when
You know we'll all be free and the bells of peace will ring again
The time will come for you and me
We'll be goin' home when this bloody war is ended
The guns will be silent on Remembrance Day
We'll all say a prayer on Remembrance Day
On Remembrance Day - say a little prayer
On Remembrance Day
Well the guns will be silent
There'll be no more fighting
Oh we'll lay down our weapons
On Remembrance Day
I guess it doesn't show up in the written lyrics, but at the end of the song, as it's fading, Adams shouts out and demands that we remember their names!
Later: Campblog reader Lori Campbell, wife of Campblog editor Mike Campbell, has provided this short essay on the sacrifice of her Uncle Moe, which she wrote this morning. Thank you, Dear Reader.
In Memory of Uncle Moe
Today is Remembrance Day … a day which we should never forget. For if it were not for the brave men and women of our past, we would not enjoy the freedoms of this country that we so take for granted. As I read the newspaper this morning and the many stories written by veterans and their families depicting the horrors of war, it brought to mind my uncle Moe and how nobody ever printed his story or thanked him for his part in securing our freedom. Maybe his part was too small. Maybe it was too short. But he paid the price nonetheless.
My uncle Moe was born Jean Francois Maurice Gilbert of an Irish mother and a French Canadian father in Quebec City in 1923. He was nine years older than my father and would have been 41 the day I was born on a cold February evening. The knowledge of my uncle Moe’s part in WWII is scant and second hand. He signed up in Montreal without my grandmother’s knowledge when he was underage and was placed with the navy situated in Halifax. I do not know how long he served with the Canadian navy but at some point while he was on duty, he was knocked unconscious by fallen debris when his ship was attacked. He was sent to Montreal, where his family then resided, and placed in the hospital where he became a human experiment for electric shock therapy. My grandmother, suspecting that something was awry, went to the hospital and demanded his release. He was released, but was never the same again.
My uncle Moe was always depicted as a free spirit as a child and a young man: he was mischievous, rowdy, loved to play pranks and get into fights. However, I remember his as a grumpy old man who hardly ever smiled, often complained, and bickered with his sister. He never married and never left home. He was known to frequent the local bar almost every evening after work and always smoked packs and packs of Export A’s. He died sadly after a life of loneliness at the age of 65 of a heart attack after shovelling snow. They say he was never the same after he was released from the hospital those many years ago. Although he never fought in the trenches or saw the horrors of war first hand, I believe he still paid a very high price.
So thank you uncle Moe … thank you for the smiles they say you only gave me. Thank you for proudly showing me your retirement pin that you received from the federal government that they say you only showed me. But more than that, thank you for playing your part for our country and my freedom.
8:59am
Monday, November 10, 2003
Debt of Honour -- Just a guy who knew Joe
With tomorrow being Remembrance Day, I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you a letter that my Dad's grandmother received following the death of her son, my Dad's Uncle Joe. The letter is always found at the Debt of Honour section of my website, but I'll also post it here. It is transcribed as it was written.
Joseph Daniel Campbell was killed in battle in Holland during the Second World War. A private in the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps from Dominion, Nova Scotia, Canada, Joe lost his life on February 10, 1945, the third day of Operation Veritable, Canada's Rhineland campaign. He was 33 years of age. Joe is buried in Holland, in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, south of Nijmegen near the German border.
A few months after his death, Joe's mother, Mrs. Agnes Campbell of Dominion, Nova Scotia, received the following letter, signed by 'Just a guy who knew Joe'. While the letter's author has never become known to our family, it holds a special place and continues to be appreciated. It has been read on CBC Radio, been the subject of Remembrance Day play put on by students of Lockview High School in Waverly, outside of Halifax, and was read at the Remembrance Day 2000 dinner of Joe's old regiment, the Algonquin Regiment of North Bay, Ontario.
Military Hospital
April 4th, 1945
Dear Mrs. Campbell,
A mutual friend of your son Joe and myself wrote me from Holland giving me the sad news of your great loss; I wanted to write you and express my profound sympathy, a feeling shared by all who knew him. Never-the-less I hesitated to do so, less in my clumsy way I freshen in your mind the sorrow you have felt.
Knowing Joe so well, he was my best friend in England and Continental Europe. I feel that I must say a few words about him and some memories associated with him.
I remember our standing in line for mail from home. the expression on his face when a letter arrived, his love for things beautiful; the sound of his army boots on the stone flooring as he explained the vast ancient beauty of York Cathedral; his fondness for chocolate, yet he always gave his candy rations to the poor grimy kids of some foreign land; remarking "I love candy but they need it." That was Joe. These kids could not say thanks just nod dumbly, stuffing the unbelievable pleasure of candy in their mouths with dirty little fingers, even soap was a luxury.
The childrens shining eyes matched only by the pleasure in Joe's. The others, unknown to you, who shared his bully beef, his cigarettes, his kindness, they all send their sympathy.
If some unthinking, unknowing person should ever speak of his being in a foreign country, please remember that there his memory will be perpetuated. For these people over there above all others know he willingly paid the bitter price for their future; their right to live as God intended life should be lived is secure because men like Joe lived -- and died.
Now, and long years after this war is over, his resting place with its stiff white cross shall be sacred to Hertogenbasch and shall have its cover of flowers; this I know.
In our minds, we who knew him, shall be kept ever green his memory. In the muck and grime of war one cannot forget a life that was clean and splendid; an enspiration in good living.
When I remember Joe with his knees bent and head bowed in frequent prayer; I know he is in Good Company and may this thought comfort you in your sorrow.
Just a guy who knew Joe
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Joe's place in Canada's Books of Remembrance Books of Remembrance rest in the foyer of the Peace Tower at the center of Parliament Hill in Ottawa |
5:09pm
Congrats to Michael Demmons for a well-earned honour -- Discount Blogger has been named AboutPolitics.com's Political Site of the Day.
4:50pm
No surprises during quarter-final weekend. On Saturday, New Zealand All Blacks downed South Africa Springboks 29-9, and the Australia Wallabies beat Scotland 33-16.
In Sunday's action, France beat Ireland 43-21, and England got past a tough Welsh side 28-17 on the boot of Jonny Wilkinson.
We're set for next weekend's semi-final grudge match action, with New Zealand going against Australia and England vs. France. Despite England's #1 ranking going in, the bookies have New Zealand winning it all, with England, then France, and host and defending champs Australia bringing up the rear. New Zealand captain Reuben Thorne says only fools would write off the Wallabies.
Should be great rugby.
4:44pm
Friday, November 7, 2003
Here are the Second World War memoirs of J.E. Boulet, of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, who was killed in action in Holland, February 26, 1945.
You asked me if I had planned on going to Japan when this is all finished. At this time the answer is no. If I come out of this with a fairly whole skin I think I will be ready to settle down to the quietest life possible and maybe drink the odd bottle of good beer which is something we can't get under any circumstances.
10:29pm
VDH -- What the war is not about
Dave linked to this one, as I do. A good collection by Hanson of the arguments about what this war is not.
The president had it right all along that there is a big choice for everyone involved — and those in the Middle East will have to decide whether they are for or against the United States in its efforts to kill the Islamic fascists who have butchered thousands of our own and who want to destroy America and offer a new Dark Age in its place. All the peace marches, New York Times editorials, or near-slander from Democratic presidential contenders cannot change that reality, and so the decision really is either to cease and desist or to wage war and finish the conflict. Anything in between is madness. [...]
This is a country, after all, that bickered over the cost of a single destroyer in 1937 and then built over 87,000 warships less than a decade later when it was at war. If we are convinced that Iraq must be stabilized, and Syria and Iran must cease aiding and abetting the terror and killing of Americans, then surely we have the resources to defeat our enemies in short order. The problem is not might, but will — or perhaps worry about our affluence, gas prices, and self-image. [...]
We have the best military in the history of civilization, but we can still lose this war — unless we remember September 11, acknowledge the awful nature of our enemies, and always, always accept the truth that civilization itself hangs in the balance.
As Churchill once said, and I paraphrase, the other guy wouldn't be fighting if he didn't think he had a chance to win.
9:59pm
Via NealeNews, the Iraqi interim President, Jalal Talabani, chastised Canada for not entering the war to remove Saddam Hussein. Talabani, a Kurdish leader, currently holds the Iraqi Council's rotating presidency.
We must move forward, not backward
Upward, not forward
And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!
-- Earthling President Clin-Ton
Mr. Talabani is hopeful for Iraqi democracy,
"In one year from now, there will be a democratic parliamentary federative Iraq," he said confidently. "We plan to make the Governing Council a Tony Blair of England instead of a Queen of England."
and thankful to those who liberated he and his people.
"We thank the Americans for freeing us from Saddam [Hussein]," the president enthused, criticizing those who accuse Washington of having acted for selfish interests.
"It's ridiculous how people say that the Americans came to loot Iraq when they are giving us tons of money," he insisted.
Meanwhile, Christopher Hitchens restates the case for war, and explains how it was unavoidable. He takes umbrage, first, with George H.W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, and says that they should never have stopped at simply driving Saddam out of Kuwait. Hitchens finds suspect "the tendency of today's left to take refuge in neutralist and conservative isolationism."
It left the Baathist regime free to continue work on weapons of mass destruction, which we know for certain it was doing on a grand scale until at the very least 1995. And it left Saddam free to continue to threaten his neighbors and to give support and encouragement to jihad forces around the world. (The man most wanted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Abdul Rahman Yasin, fled straight from New Jersey to Baghdad, though there are still those in our "intelligence" services who prefer to grant Saddam the presumption of innocence in this and many other matters.) It also left Saddam Hussein free to try and assassinate former President Bush on his postwar visit to Kuwait—an act of such transparent lunacy that it far transcends any sneers about George W. wanting to avenge his daddy. (It also demonstrates, by the way, Saddam Hussein's urgent personal need for a revenge for 1991—a consideration that deserves more attention than it has received.) [...]
Not only was he able to defy the United Nations, but with French and Russian collusion, he was also increasingly able to circumvent sanctions. The "box" was falling apart, and its supposed captive was becoming more toxic. As he became older and madder, there emerged the real prospect of a succession passing to either Odai or Qusai Hussein, or to both of them. Who could view that prospect with equanimity? (Qusai Hussein was at the heart of the concealment program, for centrifuges and other devices, that has recently been partly exposed by David Kay's report.)
... The continuation of this regime was indeed an imminent threat, at least in the sense that it was a permanent threat.
The question then, becomes this: Should the date or timing of this unpostponable confrontation have been left to Saddam Hussein to pick?
As for the threat of Saddam aiding terrorists,
I am pleased to notice the disappearance from the peacenik argument of one line of attack—namely that Saddam Hussein was "too secular" to have anything to do with jihad forces. The alliance between his murderous fedayeen and the jihadists is now visible to all—perhaps there are some who are still ready to believe that this connection only began this year. Meanwhile, an increasing weight of disclosure shows that the Iraqi Mukhabarat both sought and achieved contact with the Bin Laden forces in the 1990s and subsequently. Again, was one to watch this happening and hope that it remained relatively low-level?
The literal-minded insistence that all government rhetoric be entirely scrupulous strikes me, in view of the above, as weird. It can only come from those who were not willing to form, or to defend, positions of their own: in other words, those for whom Saddam would not have been a problem unless Bush tried to make him into one.
9:27pm
Thursday, November 6, 2003
Nationalism and Racism
Our old buddy Slobodan was in the news the other day,
U.N. prosecutors say the murders were part of a plan, designed by Milosevic and hardline nationalists in Belgrade, to create a pure "greater Serbia" empty of non-Serbs.
[Lord David] Owen helped design a peace plan in January 1993 that failed to halt the bloodshed sparked by Bosnia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1992.
Backed by the Yugoslav army, Bosnian Serbs rebelled against the secession, sparking a war among Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats that ended with the 1995 Dayton peace accords. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the wars.
Owen characterized Milosevic, who oversaw the breakup of Yugoslavia and four Balkan wars, as a pragmatist.
He "is not fundamentally a racist. He is a nationalist, but that he wears lightly. He is a pragmatist," said Owen, sitting in court a few meters from Milosevic.
He's not a "racist", he's a "nationalist". A "pragmatist". Really, Lord Owen?
So, then, what was the basis of his 'nationalism'?
While we're not talking about antisemitism here, I am reminded of some recent reading, in Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951),
There is hardly an aspect of contemporary history more irritating and mystifying than the fact that of all the great unsolved political questions of our century, it should be this seemingly small and unimportant Jewish problem that had the dubious honor of setting the whole infernal machine in motion. Such discrepancies between cause and effect outrage our common sense, to say nothing of the historian's sense of balance and harmony. Compared with the events themselves, all explanations of antisemitism look as if they had been hastily and hazardously contrived, to cover up an issue which so gravely threatens our sense of proportion and our hope for sanity.
One of these hasty explanations has been the identification of antisemitism with rampant nationalism and its xenophobic outbursts. Unfortunately, the fact is that modern antisemitism grew in proportion as traditional nationalism declined, and reached its climax at the exact moment when the European system of nation-states and its precarious balance of power crashed.
It has already been noticed that the Nazis were not simple nationalists. Their nationalistic propaganda was directed toward their fellow-travelers and not their convinced members; the latter, on the contrary, were never allowed to lose sight of a consistently supranational approach to politics. Nazi "nationalism" had more than one aspect in common with the recent nationalistic propaganda in the Soviet Union, which is also used only to feed the prejudices of the masses.
"Nationalist"? Racist.
Later: Andrew Sullivan writes on antisemitism, and links to a Commentary essay by Natan Sharansky, On Hating The Jews.
Naturally, then, in searching for the "root cause" of anti-Semitism, the Jewish state would appear to be the prime suspect. But Israel, it should be clear, is not guilty. The Jewish state is no more the cause of anti-Semitism today than the absence of a Jewish state was its cause a century ago.
To see why, we must first appreciate that the always specious line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has now become completely blurred: Israel has effectively become the world’s Jew. From Middle Eastern mosques, the bloodcurdling cry is not "Death to the Israelis," but "Death to the Jews." In more civilized circles, a columnist for the London Observer proudly announces that he does not read published letters in support of Israel that are signed by Jews. (That the complaints commission for the British press found nothing amiss in this statement only goes to show how far things have changed since Orwell wrote of Britain in 1945 that "it is not at present possible, indeed, that anti-Semitism should become respectable.") When discussion at fashionable European dinner parties turns to the Middle East, the air, we have been reliably informed, turns blue with old-fashioned anti-Semitism.
8:32pm
Enterprise, "Twilight"
Hope I don't give too much away, but last night's episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" was not to be missed. If you missed it, watch it on Sunday.
A spatial distortion leaves Archer unable to form any new long-term memories. Years in the future, he wakes up one morning and is stunned to learn the outcome of the human-Xindi conflict.
That is, Archer (and the viewer) learn a possible outcome of the conflict. He learns the price of failure should Enterprise's mission not succeed. Pretty stunning stuff, indeed.
As the Xindi attack certainly has 9/11 parallels, it would be interesting for some erstwhile film-maker to show us all the cost of failure in the war on terror. No reason to do that, actually, when they could just show clips of Taliban Afghanistan.
In this twilight period between Sopranos seasons, when certain folk are becoming dissatisfied with certain other shows, I would invite them to be sure to come on board "Enterprise" (although I think they already are).
6:21pm
Truthfully, Truthfully
Joel Plaskett Emergency ("The Joel Plasket Emergency"?) had his/its cd launch party at The Marquee on October 25th. The new cd is called "Truthfully, Truthfully".
I didn't make it to the October 25th show, but I did attend the launch party for JPE's last effort, "Down At The Khyber" a few years back, also at The Marquee. That was a great show, and totally won me over to Plaskettism. Joel is a very talented and versatile musician, and a great singer and song-writer. Watching him on stage that night, it was easy to get the feeling that here's a guy who is doing what he was meant to do. He was so at ease on stage, and I remember feeling that it wouldn't take much for this guy to really make it big internationally.
Amazon reader 'Meghan' writes
Joel Plaskett has crafted a stunning follow up to Down at the Khyber. This is music that is ment to be thrown in a car stereo while driving across the country. Full out rocking one moment drawing on pure rock and roll roots, to laid back and introspective the next there is the overall feeling that something special is occuring between singer and listener.
I suppose that review is as good as any. I'll have to go pick up the new one.
Click on The Sounds at the JPE website to sample some stuff.
Plaskett was formerly in Halifax band, Thrush Hermit. Former Hermit Rob Benvie has also struck out on his own.
[Cross-posted to Switching To Glide.]
6:08pm
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Hmmm ...
Libyan international Gadhafi, who is vice-president of his national sports federation, employed disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson as his personal trainer in Libya three years ago.
(No, this post isn't part of the Bloggish Enlightenment.)
7:10pm
Recently, there have been discussions at GenX at 40 and Discount Blogger regarding the future of blogs.
Me, I'm confident that the Bloggish Enlightenment is unfolding as it should and that it shall lead us all to those broad, sunlit uplands.
(Hey, someone's got to push this meme, as only three others did last time around.)
6:34pm
Interesting discussion going on at Alan's place regarding the horrible experiences of Maher Arar.
The National Post reports on those experiences.
If there's evidence, let's have it. If he's involved with al-Qaeda, why didn't he get sent to Gitmo, and why is he back in Canada as a free man?
5:56pm
It will be very interesting to see how UN member countries vote on this resolution.
The Israeli resolution stresses the need for "Israeli children to live a normal life free from terrorism, destruction and fear" and calls on Palestinians to bring perpetrators to justice. It will be put to a vote at this year's session of the UN General Assembly, alongside the Palestinian-child resolution, which Egypt has reintroduced for renewed international support.
"Israel believes no children should be singled out, so we are introducing our own mirror image of the Palestinian resolution, because it is unthinkable that the blood of Palestinian children is thicker than the blood of Israeli children," Ariel Milo, a spokesman for the Israeli mission to the United Nations, said yesterday.
"It will be sheer cynicism if the UN General Assembly adopts the resolution regarding Palestinian children, but fails to adopt one on the Israeli children."
But the results from last year's vote on the Palestinian children was interesting, too.
Last year's tally on the resolution dealing with the plight of Palestinian children saw 95 in favour, three against, with 58 abstentions. It carried easily because Arab and Muslim states form a sizable voting block in the GA that is frequently made stronger with support from the non-aligned group of developing countries. [...]
Canada was among those that abstained last year, explaining in a statement that the resolution "does not acknowledge that the current conflict has taken a toll on both Palestinian and Israeli children."
5:02pm
Tuesday, November 4, 2003
I haven't played hockey in almost 17 years. Don't know why, really. Just happened that way.
In Mike Eruzione-like fashion, I hung up the blades after my residence won the IHL (Intramural Hockey League) championship at St.F.X in the spring of 1987. Ah, it was a glorious victory! It looked like we were knocked out the playoffs (about 21 teams in the league, if I recall) but the residence that beat us got nailed for using an illegal goalie (he had to be from your residence, or not played for another team, or something). So, we were back in. We had basically back-to-back games against the two other division winners, with about an hour breather in between (they had played the night before). I think we won the games 9-2 and 10-3 or something. But, like I said, it was glorious. The MacPherson House Mustangs that year featured Murray Kyte, brother of NHLer Jim. Yo, Murr! DILLIGAF!! Yee-haw!
[Small World Watch: Alan knows Murray!]
We also won the coveted and inaugural Cameron Hall Cup that year, a contact grudge match against a rival residence. I wonder if it's still going on.
At that time, I didn't really think that 17 years out I would not have played.
Stupid on my part, not playing a game that I enjoyed so much.
But, all this changes on Thursday when I lace up the blades to join a bunch of guys who rent some ice, Thursdays at lunch time. Non-contact, no slapshots. Should be fun, though.
What I have to do tonight is stop by the parental unit storage facility and dig out my hockey gear. Please, God, let me have washed my gear when I put it in that bag 17 years ago. Please! Yes, I'm sure it was all washed ... but can you imagine? Saddam's scientists could have learned a thing or two from that little experiment.
I did replace my 20ish year old skates with new CCM 452s last year. So, I'll need a quick trip to Wal-Mart tomorrow (as cheap as those used gear joints) for a new stick, tape, etc., and it's Hit The Ice time at long last!
6:05pm
Hockey Hockey
In an internet poll in Sweden, Peter Forsberg was voted the best Swede to ever play in the NHL. Borje Salming came in second. Yes, Forsberg is likely a more talented player, but where would he be without Borje? I still remember the game he had his face all sliced up by that skate ... <squirm>!
In an excellent move, the NHL is holding a regular season game OUTDOORS at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium on November 22nd. The Oilers will host the Montreal Canadians. What a great idea. It's supposed to get milder in Edmonton through next week, but I hope it's nice and crispy cold for the game; ticket sales are brisk, so far.
5:00pm
Monday, November 3, 2003
The Pool round of the World Cup of Rugby has ended. While play so far featured some good rugby, there were really no good games ... until this past weekend.
On Saturday, Scotland snuck past Fiji, 22-20. Also on Saturday, in a real shocker, Australia squeaked by Ireland 17-16.
Then, another nail-biter came on Sunday, in what was perhaps one of the most exciting rugby games I've ever seen, New Zealand downed Wales 53-37. The score here belies the closeness of the affair, as the underdog Welsh actually held the lead at the one hour mark and were providing some great running rugby.
There were still blowouts on the weekend, with England murdering Uruguay, 111-13, and South Africa trouncing Samoa, 60-10.
The US lost to France on Friday, btw, going through the tournament winless.
On to the playoff round. While Saturday's match of Australia vs Scotland certainly favours the Wallabies, all four matches next weekend should be exciting. Also on Saturday, New Zealand plays South Africa in what should be a great game. On Sunday, Ireland takes on France, and England plays Wales.
Lots of scores to settle.
8:48pm
The Washington Times comments on the vulnerabilities of China's economy.
These factors are creating a bubble in China's economy and undermining U.S. exports to China, and beyond. Primarily, the bad loans that state-owned banks in China dole out to state-owned businesses are imposing a dangerous burden on the Chinese financial system that could become a crisis. These bank subsidies further detach Chinese companies from the economic realities that U.S. companies must confront and hurt U.S. exports. Last year, the United States posted a $103 billion trade deficit with China.
China is also falling behind its WTO deadlines. Hey, I don't want their bubble to burst, but if the Communist Party wants its decades-old market reform program to make any long term sense, then it will have to address these issues before long.
And then there's that democracy thing.
8:31pm
Remembrance - Canadian War Art
Canada sent a dozen war artists to France during the Second World War. One can imagine the difficulty in trying to reveal such horror through a work of art.
Normandy Summer, 1944: D-Day and after in Canadian Art
by Laura Brandon
Canadian Military History Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring 1994), 26-32.
Canada sent twelve official war artists to France, more than one third of the thirty- two that were ultimately commissioned. They served with all three services, and as a result of their labour Canada has a remarkably complete artistic record of the Normandy campaign from the preparation stages through to the drive towards Germany. This collection is housed at the Canadian War Museum and certain paintings from it form part of the permanent displays at the Museum, while others are on loan to museums in Normandy and are used in special exhibitions in Canada.
... one of the better-known depictions of D-Day, Orville Fisher's D-Day--The Assault (CWM 12469) . It shows a number of Canadian soldiers struggling to shore, waist deep in the cold, breaking waves of the English Channel. German beach defences loom threateningly beside them, and in the background, exploding shells churn up the water mixing spray with the smoke and cloud. Intriguingly, the purposeful determination of the Canadian soldiers to reach dry land is reinforced by the powerful presence of the enemy's cross-like beach obstacles. Through another subtle contrast, the potential for failure on both sides is expressed through the use of the broken wooden stakes of the Germans, which find an echo in the dead body of the Canadian in the shallows.
12:54pm
The Flea muses on a question that is (or, at least, should be) central to the fibre of every Canadian's being: what was the name of Relic's boat if it had a name at all?
[Should there be a retroactive Name Relic's Boat contest?]
12:39pm
In the same vein as David's recent post regarding Russian leadership, the National Post comments today on Ukraine's shifty leader, Leonid Kuchma.
Mr. Kuchma's approval rating stands at less than 10% -- and it is easy to see why. Many Ukrainians suspect his government played a role in the unsolved 2000 death of a reporter investigating government sleaze. Since Mr. Kuchma became President in 1995, he has used everything from "tax inspections" to administrative diktats to intimidation in order to silence independent media outlets. According to a report recently issued by Freedom House, an international NGO that monitors the spread of democracy, Mr. Kuchma now practises such measures with "alarming frequency."
Mr. Kuchma is no friend of the West, either. Last year, the United States suspended $70-million in aid to Ukraine after allegations surfaced that the President had approved the sale of a high-tech radar system to Iraq.
12:29pm
Sunday, November 2, 2003
Can't Do A Little 'Cause He Can't Do Enough
The Campblog circuits nearly overloaded yesterday watching a newly acquired The World of Sid and Marty Krofft dvd, which is basically a sampler of some of the classic Saturday morning kids shows produced by the Krofft brothers from the late '60s through to around 1980. These shows were lame, weird, and, for the most part, a lot of fun.
As I said, the dvd is a sampler of a dozen Krofft shows, and begins with the greatest mayor in the history of mayordom, H.R. PufnStuff. It was fun to see this again ~ and the memories just came rushing back: the kid Jimmy with his magic flute, jumping in the boat to Living Island, Witchiepoo driving by in her broom-broom and causing the boat to become evil and a storm to come up. Kling and Klang, the two keystone cop types, the three evil trees that were always trying to ingratiate themselves to Witchiepoo, etc.
I wondered how a kid today would view this stuff (I might have to sit my niece and nephew down to watch). Would they find it compelling? Perhaps, but at least they'd be sure to know the story. The PufnStuff theme certainly provides a few clues:
H.R. Pufnstuff,
Who's your friend when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuff
Can't do a little cause he can't do enough.
Once upon a summertime
Just a dream from yesterday
A boy and his magic golden flute
Heard a boat from off the bay
"Come and play with me, Jimmy
Come and play with me.
And I will take you on a trip
Far across the sea."
But the boat belonged to a kooky old witch
Who had in mind the flute to snitch
From her broom broom in the sky
She watched her plans materialize
She waved her wand
The beautiful boat was gone
The skies grew dark
The sea grew rough
And the boat sailed on and on and on and on and on and on.
But Pufnstuff was watching too
And knew exactly what to do
He saw the witch's boat attack
And as the boy was fighting back
He called his rescue racer crew
As often they'd rehearsed
And off to save the boy they flew
But who would get there first?
But now the boy had washed ashore
Puf arrived to save the day
Which made the witch so mad and sore
She shook her first and screamed away.
H.R. Pufnstuff,
Who's your friend when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuff
Can't do a little cause he can't do enough.
H.R. P