Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

""

The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

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12:00 AM
Happy birthday to me :)

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5:13 PM
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

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12:35 PM
The Yom Ha'atzmaut rally is being held in Montreal this upcoming Wednesday May 7th at 11am at Phillips Square.

Last year, attendance reached nearly 25,000 people. This year, it's extremely important to show up, as a show of support for Israel and a celebration of 55 years of independance.

The link above contains info for free bus transportation and other details. I plan to be there. Will you?

Update: In an interesting twist, former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard will be speaking at the rally. That ought to be . . . different, anyway. Considering probably almost none of the attendees will have voted for him or the PQ, it's certainly odd, politically. Maybe that's the point.

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12:25 PM
Something strange happened today: the price of a litre of gas dropped below the value of the Canadian dollar.

For the first time in I can't remember how long, the Canadian dollar rose above the $0.70 US mark. At the same time, a litre of gas dropped below the $0.70 Cdn mark to 69.9 at the corner gas station near my house.

Looks like a good time for a road trip to the States!

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11:04 PM
The latest hit music video from the so-called "partner for peace" urges the murder of Jewish settlers. On state-run TV, no less.

Did somebody say road map?

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11:20 PM
There is sure to be a lot of talk about the shooting of 13 Iraqi protestors by US troops, as the finger-pointing begins. But in reading the vastly divergeant accounts, one thing in particular grabbed my attention:

A U.S. officer at the scene, Lt. Col. Eric Nantz, said the bloodshed occurred after people in the crowd fired into the air, making it hard to tell if his men were under threat.

"There was a lot of celebratory firing ... last night," Nantz said, noting Monday was Saddam's 66th birthday.

"There were a lot of people who were armed and who were throwing rocks. How is a U.S. soldier to tell the difference between a rock and a grenade?"

But when Israel is faced with real violence, in the form of actual shooting, any effort to defend itself is considered disproportionate use of force, right?

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8:25 PM
Believe it or not, there's a heartening editorial in Arab News (via Rana on the Link's board). Entitled "It's All Israel's Fault", the editorial dares to recognize what nobody would admit for a long time: namely, that the Arab media's habit of blaming Israel for absolutely everything has been detrimental to the Arab world for a long time:

In the Arab media, it wasn't so much a question of confusing patriotism with reportage as confusing news with wishful thinking. In a word, what was lacking was objectivity and critical self-analysis.

This, of course, is nothing new. For decades it has been difficult to find anything in the opinion pages of the Arabic language press that did not concern Israel. Every problem faced by Arab societies was blamed, in however obscure or far-fetched a way, on Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. The issue served as a sort of lowest common denominator, satisfying many journalists who were not equipped to write about anything else as well as many of those who rule the Arab world and who would prefer Israel — rather than their own shortcomings — to be the subject of heated discussion in the "Arab street."

[ . . . ]

The days when the Arab world could just scream "Israel", as if that one word were sufficient answer to every question about every problem that came its way — as though saying that one word could deflect all further inquiry — are over. The time for peaceful coexistence, internal reflection and healthy, progressive thinking has come.

It's about time somebody wrote this. The scapegoating has been going on for a long time and isn't likely to just stop because of one editorial. But like everything else, it's a step.

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8:19 PM
Yves Engler has an editorial in today's Gazette about what the Liberal government should do, in his opinion, to help make university education more accessible to students.

Engler, with his involvement with the past CSU and his far left political views, has frequently criticized government policy on education. Today's editorial avoids some of his more radical views that he has put forth in articles in the Link, and sticks to a more reasonable position:

As a result of cutbacks and fee increases, the average debt load of Quebec residents graduating from an undergraduate program is $13,100 and climbing. Students from less affluent backgrounds are finding it increasingly difficult to attend university.

[ . . . ]

Around the world, governments are concluding that education is fundamental to society's economic, social and political development. That is the reason the U.S. government has gradually increased its share of GDP allocated to education to the point it is now greater than Canada's. It's also why Ireland and Wales recently eliminated tuition fees.

Here in Quebec, to improve post-secondary education the new Liberal government should:
- Significantly increase funding;
- Maintain the tuition freeze;
- Prohibit further increases in ancillary fees;
- Gradually transform student aid from loans into needs-based bursaries;
- Progressively eliminate differential fees.

These steps would be a wise investment in Quebec's future.

All very well and good. But here's why I think that Yves Engler is wrong:

Engler is talking about education as a right. Everyone, he says, should have the right to a degree. I would amend that by saying that everyone should have the opportunity to obtain a degree. But not everyone should just have a degree hand-delivered and gift-wrapped. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth anything.

The government already funds elementary, high school, and here in Quebec even college education. And everyone has the right to go to university. Everyone even has the opportunity - provided, of course, that they earn it. Scholarships and financial aid are widely available to deserving students. Tuition is more than reasonable; in fact, it's the lowest in Canada. And if Engler is griping about the price of a Concordia degree, he should try having to pay for an American university; he might appreciate the measly $2,500 a year that Quebec students pay a whole lot more.

What exactly is the "right" to a degree? Not all degrees are created equal. The value of a degree from Harvard, for example, far exceeds the value of the same degree from Concordia, even if the student worked equally hard to achieve it and obtained an equally high grade point average. Everyone knows this, and expects it. But why is that?

Unfortunately, the answer is usually money. The top professors are attracted by research funds or high salaries. The big donors will fund a university with an excellent reputation much more than one with a mediocre one. The top universities have lower student-teacher ratios, top facilities, and prominent professors and graduates.

University education isn't simply a right, it's an investment. And either way, society pays, with the expectation of a return on that investment. Where my opinion differs from Engler's is in who should make that investment. Taxpayers already fund most of a university education for students. And I do agree that partial funding is necessary; other problems are created when tuition is allowed to spiral out of control. But what happens now is that students have absolutely no concept of the true value of their education. They grudgingly pay their $2,500 a year and figure that's the cost, when in reality their education is worth many times that. This makes it easier for them to float around school year after year, not getting a degree, just wreaking havoc and never graduating and moving into the real world, because it's so cheap. Maybe if tuition was closer to the true cost of an education, it would be more appreciated and people would take it more seriously.

Scholarships and bursaries can be helpful. But student loans are already low-interest and have flexible repayment terms. The reason that society funds education so heavily is the same as the reason students go to university in the first place: investment. And as an investment, it should pay off for students down the road, so why shouldn't they be expected to pay off their student loans in order to give back some of that investment into society to help fund education for the next batch of students coming through?

If tuition were raised, more students could receive financial aid who need it. At the same time, the universities in Quebec would receive badly-needed funding in order to recruit top professors, fund vital research, improve facilities, and build a name that puts them in the top rungs of world-class educational institutions. And then everyone - graduates as well as wider society - would reap the benefits in the form of more business investment, better employment, higher salaries, and a more productive economy.

Obviously, governments are afraid to propose lifting the tuition freeze because of negative reactions by student unions and groups like the CSU or the CFS. The Liberals were afraid of losing votes if they campaigned on that basis. So until a government has the courage to say what needs to be said, and raise tuition to a more reasonable level, education will continue to be woefully underfunded, hampering our ability to compete on a global scale. That is the real tragedy here.

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7:39 PM
Jean Charest named his new cabinet today, and the new government was sworn in. Here's hoping it'll be better than the last one (can't be much worse, right?)

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7:31 PM
More terror in Israel, as a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv kills 3 and injures 15:

Israel radio reports that a suicide bomber attempted to enter Mike's Place, a seafront coffee house near the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Intial reports state the security guard at the restaurant tried to wrestle the terrorist to the ground when the terrorist detonated his explosives.

I hate to say it but I've almost become numb to this already. It sounds awful, doesn't it? That terror has become so commonplace, that we tend to move right past the grief and shock stages, straight to a political analysis of the fallout.

And that, of course, is crystal-clear: the terrorists are making their point that, as the new Palestinian cabinet is approved, possibly paving the way towards more negotiations, they're reminding anyone who may have forgotten that they will never accept any sort of peace agreement with Israel. They want nothing more or less than the total destruction of Israel, and they will keep on launching terror attacks until then.

The United States, however, is now in a position where it is committed to the "road map" and is politically indebted to European allies such as Tony Blair to make another push towards peace between Israel and the Palestinians. So, as these large forces shuffle their cards, Israel will once again be asked to make sacrifices, weakening its position in order to appease its allies, in exchange for only more terror and bloodshed. When will they realize that you can't force peace between two parties who don't trust each other?

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7:25 PM
Well I guess it's safe to travel to Toronto again, according to the World Health Organization.

In the meantime, I was at a convention today with a lot of attendees from Toronto. And I didn't see a single mask.

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10:55 PM
Today is Yom Hashoah, the official Holocaust Rememberance Day.

It's a day to take a moment and reflect. A day to light a candle in rememberance of the six million. This is what the US Holocaust Memorial Museum says about Yom Hashoah:

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and for reminding Americans of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, created by act of Congress in 1980, was mandated to lead the nation in civic commemorations and to encourage appropriate Remembrance observances throughout the country. Observances and Remembrance activities can occur during the week of Remembrance that runs from the Sunday before through the Sunday after the actual date.

While there are obvious religious aspects to such a day, it is not a religious observance as such. The internationally-recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. That is the date on which Israel commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah.

The Holocaust is not merely a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage. It is a remarkable story of the human spirit and the life that flourished before the Holocaust, struggled during its darkest hours, and ultimately prevailed as survivors rebuilt their lives.

For more information, a few good links to visit are the Nizkor Project, the website for Yad Vashem, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center's website.

Perhaps not incidentally, Simon Wiesenthal announced his retirement from six decades of work pursuing and catching Nazi war criminals. The 94-year-old and his organisation are responsible for apprehending about 1,100 war criminals, and he is finally ready to quit:

"My work is done," he said. "I found the mass murderers I was looking for. I survived them all. Those who I didn't look for are too old and sick today to be pursued legally."

It may seem like a small event, but Wiesenthal's retirement is probably symbolic of the turning point that the world finds itself at today. Normally quiet to almost the point of being reclusive, Wiesenthal has spoken out this year about current events, including the riot at Concordia that prevented Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking:

Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal has urged Concordia to reschedule last month's speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that anti-Israel protestors have succeeded in restricting freedom of speech for the entire student body.

"I never thought I would live to see the day when there would be more open expression of hate against Jews than in the 1930s," said Wiesenthal in a letter to Rector Frederick Lowy. "Tragically, that is the situation today around the world."

Perhaps this is never more relevant as right now. The last generation of Holocaust survivors is ageing, and sadly, there will soon no longer be anyone alive to bear witness. The horrors of the Nazi regime will become just another chapter of history, remembered by Steven Spielberg movies and the hundreds of archives that are frantically being assembled by museums and historians. And the more remote in time it becomes, the easier it will be for the racists and revisionists to twist history. And the easier it will be for history to repeat itself.

At the same time, the world is witnessing an outbreak of antisemitism that - while it would be unfair to all to compare it to the Holocaust - is clearly heightened.

Tomorrow's challenges are already crystallizing today. It will no longer be sufficient to point to history, because too many people are loudly rewriting history to make it fit their prejudices and perspectives.

I've frequently heard criticism that there is too much focus among Jewish organizations on the Holocaust, and that we ought to move forward after so long. That may be, but anyone who moves forward without remembering history is bound to repeat it. We say that so often, it's become somewhat of a cliché. But it is also an irrefutable truth.

Yes, this is a turning point in history. Something to think about in the coming hours of Yom Hashoah.

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10:44 PM
Well I guess if the doctors are willing to go to Toronto - and infectious disease specialists, no less - it must be safe to travel there.

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12:09 AM
Just when I think that that the entertainment industry can't stoop any lower, they release trash like this. No, I won't go see it no matter how much you pay me.

On the plus side, I went to see Bend it like Beckham last week, which was one of the more entertaining movies I've seen in a while. Think of an Indian version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding that meets British mania for football. It drags a little here and there, and falls into cliches, but it was still a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

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