One Year Later, 28 December

So we are now at the close of 2013, in terms of world events well we had the usual disasters, wars, massacre of population and very little Peace on Earth. One Supreme Pontiff resigned not the first to do so in the history of the Holy See replaced by the first Jesuit ever to reach that exalted position. The new Pontiff  is a very good PR man and knows how to catch people by surprise, in a way the old Polish Politician Jean-Paul II could not, despite all the Media hype. We have also come to learn of his role and lack of action in the whole child abuse scandal. Of his powerful friends who were deeply involved and were he failed to act because he was pursuing a political agenda closely tied to Polish Politics. A moral failure on his part in my view which does not deserve his elevation to Sainthood. Luckily Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) will also be elevated to Sainthood, a much more deserving choice.

Then the Civil War in Syria, we came close to a military intervention again in a conflict the West did not understand and had little interest, though for reason of public policy politicians had to show the masses they cared. Once the matter of the chemical weapons was settled, the West lost interest and the Civil War continue apace. As for our so-called friends in the Syrian Opposition it looks like Russia knew all along that they were not trustworthy and President Assad is the devil we know, a classic case of I told you so, the Russians are laughing now and the Americans well have poor quality intelligence but then again that is not new. The series of articles in the New York Times of 29 Dec 2013 explain the whole Benghazi affair and the many failures of the CIA, yet again.
Then there was Egypt and Morsi and the Brotherhood. The Egyptian crisis will continue for some time to come, not to mention the many crisis in the whole region, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Qatar.
Iran elected a new President it appears some change may be at hand, will see. Hopefully no war with Iran it would be a huge mistake. The so called Arab Spring that was not really a change for democracy, how can you have democracy with extreme poverty, lack of economic opportunity, illiterate people, lack of basic sanitation and clean water and corruption. It looks almost like a luxury this democracy thing. In North America we are very naive, too often thinking that people want to copy us and our culture.

There were other conflicts in Africa, Mali and Central African Republic where France and their President are playing old Colonial Masters coming to help the poor Africans. Would it not be better to simply let Africans settle their own score? Am sure they are quite capable without the help of France.

In Canada well we saw more GOP and Tea Party Politics thanks to our born-again Evangelical, Rapture seeker Prime Minister, several of his ministers have shown how out of touch they are with reality, spitting on the poor, the elderly, the disabled, Veterans, pensioners, the public service and poor children, in the immortal words of Minister James Moore, ''It is not my responsibility to feed my neighbours children'' or in the words of Minister of Veterans Affairs, Fantino, ''We have no responsibility to our wounded Veterans'' or better still Minister of Justice, Mackay ''the homeless should sell whatever they have so they can pay their fines". This same government is now involved in a political scandal which is destroying the faith we might have had in our democratic institutions. For years Canadians lived in this dreamy stupor believing that we did not have corruption in Canada, we now know that we are a very corrupt country where many political appointees are on the take and have Mafia connections. Canadians have also woken up to the fact that our Governor General cannot do a thing about any political situation, no matter how dangerous it might be given the near dictatorial powers Mr. Harper has given himself, that being a flaw in our own Constitution of 1867. The GG's role kiss babies and eat cake, basta.

I will not go into the depressing situation with the Mayor buffoon of Toronto the former metropolis of Canada, a role the city held for a brief period between 1977 and 2006, before being replaced by Calgary.
Toronto today is bankrupt and is the fruit bowl of Multicultural Policies that simply do not work in the real world, no matter how hard Canadians wish to believe in our national myths.

I will not bore you with the rest of the news which had little to make anyone smile. I am sure you have your own favourite news story.

But let's look instead on the brighter side of things, this year has been my first year in retirement. I volunteered with our National Museums, spending over 360 hours working as a volunteer.
I learned a great deal and it has been an interesting experience.

We travelled in May to Salzburg to the Pfingstfestspiele Music Festival. We had like in years past a wonderful time and we are returning in 2014. Then in August we travelled to Stratford Ontario for the Theatre Festival, a first for me, fell in love with this lovely city.

During our stay in Stratford we met with fellow bloggers we had been corresponding with. Meeting people in person after speaking and commenting on the internet is always a bit daunting but it was a rewarding experience and met like minded fellows and made new friends. See their blogs at http://sporeflections.wordpress.com
and http://harpersvalley.wordpress.com We will most likely meet them again this August at the Festival.

Then in November we flew to Rome met with many old friends and then on to our cruise on AZAMARA which took us to Spain. It is our second cruise with this line and we love it. www.azamaraclubcruises.com

Spending 23 days in Europe and visiting many famous sites was a pleasure. We discovered Valencia, Gibraltar, Séville and Granada. The beauty of the Alcazar and the Alhambra, treasures of our past. This trip was our gift to ourselves on our 35 Anniversary, (1978-2013). At the end of our trip we met in London with our friend D.N. who suggested a wonderful fish restaurant J. Sheekey and entertained us with a delightful conversation on music and the arts. I am always in awe of his prodigious memory for details. We stayed in London with my fiancée C. at her very central flat near Baker Street. She also took us to a great restaurant Brasserie Zédel.

On this blog I am ending the year with 92,000 clicks, thank you for all the comments. This is our 3rd year in Ottawa we have re-connected with friends and have our old regular circle back.

Being retired is not difficult and life takes on a different look, I now have other priorities which have nothing to do with work and more to do with what I like and want to do. I do not regret for one moment having retired. As for 2014 I do not have any resolutions, I do not really believe in them. Will see what this new year brings.

In Capri at Dr. Munthe's House

 

Talking about Syria

Yesterday, Saturday 24 August, which is still summer vacation time, in Europe most people are still at the beach, here in Canada people are also on vacation, thinking of other things and not looking at the ''hard'' news, we could read in the local paper that Stevie Harper was talking with Cameron of Britain and Hollande of France about Syria. I wonder what did the conversation sound like given that all 3 men have different agendas politically in 3 very different countries. Where they responding to the grumblings in the Obama White House? The US Government is itching for a fight with Russia after the Snowden affair, tempest in a tea pot perhaps?

Last week there were reports that a poison gas attack had taken place in Syria and that scores of people were dead and even more injured. Capitals were assessing if any of it was true. Suddenly French reporters started to present in their news stories detailed reports of poison gas attacks describing the symptoms of victims. None of these reporters where on site, no, they instead picked-up the detailed accounts from gossip heard on the Internet and pieced it all together. Allegations that 2 French reporters brought back samples, really? A bit like your Aunt Maud hanging the wash and hearing neighbourhood gossip over the clothes line.

Syria on Sunday agreed to having UN inspectors look at the alleged site of the attack, the White House says ''It is too late'', an almost Bush Era like response. So we will never know if there was or not a poison gas attack. Does it matter, the goal appears to be to get rid of Assad and give a blow to Hezbollah and Iran. I would counsel patience, let the UN team do its work and if it is demonstrated that poison gas was used then decide what to do. But before doing anything think of the consequences and what might happen next. Public Opinion is not pushing for a quick solution.

Again the media in general is more than happy to trumpet whatever the politicians will claim to be the reason for this attack. In the past 20 years the following reasons where given, #1 must eliminate weapons of mass destruction, #2 bring democracy to the region, #3 bring prosperity to the region, #4 educate girls (boys are never mentioned, they apparently do not deserve education), #5 Uphold human rights, #6 win minds and hearts, #7 Defending our National Interests.

I remember after the First Gulf War (1991) when Iraq under Saddam Hussein was forced to retreat and leave Kuwait, the Media announced that the USA had brought democracy to Kuwait because Kuwaitis loved Fast Food and Shopping malls, they were just like us, they want to breathe Freedom.

Of course Freedom, Democracy, Promotion of Western Feminist ideals and Education for girls are all good popular ideals to throw into the debate, the public can see that the goals are noble. We do not need to ask ourselves hard questions or understand that we are dealing with societies unlike ours and societies that are evolving under very different circumstances and a history very different from ours. In other words, we have little in common. What we want for them is not what they want, we did not ask them, we simply imposed our views on them. More and more it smacks of New Colonialism disguised under new words, slogans, colours and banners but is in fact the same old story. Colonialism did not die in 1960, it simply went into a slumber like Sleeping Beauty.

Intervention in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya and now possibly Syria did not change anything to the lives of the people of those countries, it only made things worse, much worse.

Intervention in Syria is not to help Syrians, it is about getting back at Iran and it's proxy army Hezbollah. Many of whom are Canadian Citizens with families in the Greater Toronto Area, thanks to our blind and generous immigration policies. It is also to make a point with Russia's Putin, Syria has always been a pawn in Cold War Politics and it remains a pawn to this day. It's a cynical game between Russia and the USA. France also has a stake in the region as it sees Lebanon and Syria as old colonies. But France has been kept on the sidelines in the Middle-East by the USA and this creates a lot of friction between France and the USA.
The French are still trying to position themselves in this game. Let's not forget how in Iraq, France tried and failed to protect its Oil contracts with Saddam and how they sheltered for years in France the Ayatollah Khomeini going so far as to fly him on a special Air France flight to Iran in 1979. Britain also has an role or a hand in all this since Ottoman times. In such disputes the UK are the strong ally of the USA.

What I do not understand here is the involvement of Canadian PM Harper in this debate. A man who has repeatedly shown how little he understands in World Affairs, is he even interested beyond the photo-op? Canada has never had anything more than a small role in the Middle-East and in terms of Foreign Policy we have been fence sitters, refusing to take sides until recently when Prime Minister Harper decided that we would change course and put ourselves squarely behind Israël and support wholeheartedly Prime Minister Netenyahu, come Hell or High Water.

Again in what way does this enhance our Canadian National Interests is not clear. It does enhance the political profile of Mr. Harper and partisan politics is what he is all about. Canada did very well in Afghanistan and we did make an important contribution, what will be the lasting legacy of that intervention is uncertain at best. It is for the Afghani people to decide what they want for their future. It is clear though that we did not need to get involved, it was not a peace keeping mission as initially explained by Mr. Harper. We were not involved in Iraq our Prime Minister then, Jean Chretien refusing to go along with the USA.

In Libya, Canada was the master of the skies, our Air Force was stationed in Trapani, Sicily, again we did very well, though the final goal beyond getting rid of the troublesome Qaddafi and company was not clear. No one, who is knowledgeable about the ground situation in Libya expected democracy to blossom. The Libyans would be grateful we were told, really? The public had to be told that we were pursuing a peaceful and democratic solution in Libya. However politicians have used this excuse so often that very few still believe that our goals are noble, its all about power politics and influence, the public has become increasingly cynical of what politicians have to say.

I do not see Canadians in favour of our involvement in Syria, an involvement which would complicate our clouded Foreign Policy. Harper will have to explain how involving our armed forces or more likely our Air Force in Syria which is an expensive enterprise in difficult fiscal times as the Prime Minister likes to say, would be of any benefit. We are well on our way in 2013 in creating a new budget deficit larger than last year while our PM is trying to tell us that he is desperately trying to balance the books which he has not done in 8 years in power. What would we gain from such an intervention. I could see pandering to the Lebanese-Syrian Community in Canada and to the Iranian diaspora in a cynical political game for votes, beyond that not much.

We have to accept that trying to re-arrange the world order by massive military intervention is not a solution. Some conflicts no matter how horrible and devastating in far away lands are none of our business. The idea that we have an international obligation to intervene is bunk. Sometimes conflicts exist for reasons beyond our understanding and I would advocate in such case the Chinese approach, not to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries, especially when it does not threaten our Sovereignty and or our vital National Interests.