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

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

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5:26 PM
Michaelle Jean, again

Damian Penny thinks that the evidence of Jean's separatist leanings is fairly convincing and that Martin should have chosen someone "less polarizing":

Being a former Quebec separatist shouldn't, all by itself, disqualify you from being Governor-General. But when Jean won't say how she voted in the 1995 sovereignty referendum, and when her "loyalty" statement contains little more than weasel words about never belonging to "a political party or the separatist movement", well, what are we supposed to conclude?

For a completely opposite (and more optimistic) view, here's Josh Freed in last week's Gazette on how Michaelle Jean can be considered the first "cool" federalist in Quebec - and perhaps could even start a trend:

As long as I've followed politics in this province, the fun, cool, party people have always been on the separatist side, while the federalists have been square. Sovereignty attracts all the singers, artists, poets, writers, dancers and everyone else who dresses in black. Federalism attracts business types who look grey.

In Quebec's 30-year-old Cool War for the hearts and minds of young francophones, the federalists have been massacred. To even suggest in public that you back Canada can get you tarred as a nerd.

So when Jean recently announced she was "proud to be Canadian" and "fully committed to Canada," she became the first cool federalist I can recall to come out for Canada since, well, Pierre Trudeau. That's probably why she's such a threat to hard-line sovereignists. They seem to spend every waking hour issuing documents to show Jean is really a separatist, as if they've ever really cared who represents the queen they can't stand.

I guess they sense that Jean may make it fashionable to be a federalist in Quebec and threaten to close the cool gap.

[ . . . ]

As governor-general, Jean is a great new role model: she's a highly articulate woman and a Haitian immigrant who became a TV star. She's in a mixed-race marriage with an adopted child - and she speaks five languages.

She couldn't be more 21st century unless she was gay, too. And yes, she's also a great dancer.

Maybe she once drank a toast to independence at a party. Sure, her husband was probably in favour of sovereignty. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, you can't throw a stone in Quebec without hitting a separatist. Most francophones have flirted with independence at some stage in their lives and many still double-date even if it irks their English-speaking partner.

All that federalists should want is to make it easy for more Quebecers to release their inner Canadian child - and Jean seems willing to be the poster girl.

Who knows? She's so appealing Jean might even tempt a couple of other trendy Quebecers to come out for Canada, and help make it as fashionable to be a Quebec federalist as it is to be a Quebec separatist.

That would be cool.

Yeah, I'm not so sure... but hey, could happen.

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5:23 PM
Nap for 70 cents a minute

I must be tired, cause this sounds oddly tempting.

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5:16 PM
Snubbed again

In the Gazette, columnist L. Ian MacDonald claims Canada's biggest problem in the softwood lumber dispute is getting the U.S.'s attention:

"I will be speaking to the president when the timing is appropriate," Martin said in Regina. "It's very important as far as I'm concerned that that phone call take place when it is right for Canada to have it take place, and that will be quite soon."

Translation: the White House hasn't returned the call from the Prime Minister's Office.

In any event, it's not the kind of problem that can be resolved with a phone call. It takes a relationship, and Martin has gone out of his way not to establish one with Bush.

The problem is, Martin wants it both ways. He wants to be seen as anti-American when it's convenient, but when he wants the U.S. to respect Canada, he is unwilling to reap the consequences.

Like the CBC's labour dispute, the biggest risk in Canada playing trade harball with the U.S. is that they'll realize how easy it is to ignore us. Carolyn Parrish can go on stomping on Bush dolls if she wants; it's pretty obvious that the real Bush doesn't really care much.

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4:58 PM
Big Lies

A CBS News column is claiming that the onus is not on the Palestinians to make the next move in the mideast, now that Israel disengaged from Gaza, because settlers are still moving to the West Bank:

For Palestinians, the Gaza pullout is a little like a settler shell game. The settlers have disappeared from one place, only to pop up somewhere else. And Israel still controls Gaza's land and sea crossings. In the eyes of the armed Palestinians, that�s plenty reason to keep fighting.

Then there's the "separation fence" the Israelis are building, which has gobbled up huge chunks of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, in the name of security — yet more provocation.

So when Ariel Sharon says to them, "Look what Israel did for peace, now it's your turn," the Palestinians are a little stumped. Essentially, they have to convince the militants to lay down their arms without being able to promise to deliver a net gain in land or independence.

Meanwhile, armed Palestinian groups believe that making the cost of staying in Gaza too high with their constant attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers is what drove the Israelis out. For them, the Gaza pullout proves that violence works.

The sad thing about this analysis is that it's about to emerge as the Next Big Lie.

Mideast politics is full of these Big Lies. When Israel offered Arafat 99% of what he wanted in Camp David, and instead of accepting it or even making a counter-offer, he walked away and started a war that's lasted nearly five years and cost thousands of lives, the Big Lie was that Israel wasn't making much of an offer in the first place. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the Big Lie was that Hezbollah was still justified in launching rocket attacks because Israel didn't pull completely out of the Sheba Farms. When Ariel Sharon made a scheduled - and approved - visit to Har HaBayit in 2000, the Big Lie was that mosques were being attacked, and that this was an excuse to launch a war that had been planned for months. Mohammed Al-Dura. Jenin and the massacre-that-wasn't. The "Apartheid Wall". I could go on and on with the Big Lies.

They get accepted as truth because there are just so many people in the world repeating them. Media outlets. Arab countries and leaders. "Activists" and sympathizers. When you consider that Muslims outnumber Jews in the world by a proportion of a thousand to one, and that sooner or later the message being shouted the loudest by the most people comes to be accepted as truth, then it's easy to understand how these Big Lies get propogated.

So now the "shell game" is about to be the next Big Lie. Oh, the world will say, Israel didn't really do very much. Sure, the country went through the most painful thing it could possibly imagine, forcibly evacuating fellow citizens from their homes and land. But really, they didn't do anything because more settlers are moving to the West Bank. So the Palestinians don't have to disarm; they don't have to talk peace; they don't have to take the next step.

No matter what sacrifices Israel makes or what unilateral steps it takes, nothing will be enough. It will all be explained away by the next Big Lie. And Israel's moves will all be in vain.

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10:55 PM
Habs tracker

Still no deals with Jose Theodore or Michael Ryder. Despite strong denials, could there be anything to the Roberto Luongo trade rumours? Let's hope not. Luongo's good, and a swap for Theodore might make reasonable sense, but definately not if shoulda-been-rookie-of-the-year Ryder is thrown into the deal.

Most of the Habs' other key players are already signed, with the exceptions of Andrei Markov and Yanic Perreault. But some key players are only on one-year contracts, including Koivu and Ribeiro. And we haven't done particularly well in bolstering our team during the off-season. With strengthened rivals within our division, I'm not sure how optimistic I'm feeling right now about our chances. Still, I'm hoping that the team pulls it together.

42 days till the puck drops - it's getting exciting!

Update 8/26: Markov signed a 2-year deal yesterday. Still nothing on Theo or Ryder.

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10:50 PM
Doctors returning to Canada... but not to Quebec

A new report says the doctor brain drain has reversed; more doctors came to Canada last year than left. However, none of this is helping Quebec, whose ridiculous regulations are driving most medical school graduates to leave the province to start their careers, because there aren't enough positions in Montreal. Upon graduation, new doctors have a choice: they can go work in the "regions" or accept a 30% pay cut. That leads most of them to take the third choice: go to Ontario or elsewhere for double the pay.

This is a frequent source of frustration among friends currently in med school, many of whom would like to stay here but can't get jobs in Montreal. This despite the fact that the province has a shortage of hundreds of doctors, and the shortage is actually worse in Montreal than it is in many outlying regions. Anyone who's tried to find a GP lately can attest to that.

The Quebec government needs to realize that a stick-only approach only works when you can restrict people from leaving; when they have other, better options, you'd better break out the carrots.

In the meantime, if you get sick, you'll be better off in Alberta or Ontario.

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10:18 PM
Watch out, Ashlee Simpson

The President of Turkmenistan has banned lip synching:

He has outlawed opera and ballet and railed against long hair and gold teeth, but now President Saparmurat Niyazov is determined to wipe out another perceived scourge: lip synching.

Niyazov has ordered a ban on lip synching performances across the tightly controlled Central Asian country, citing "a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art," the president's office said Tuesday.

Milli Vanilli will have to skip the Turkmenistan stop of their next tour, I suppose.

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3:40 PM
Gaza pullout: a step towards peace?

Abbas and Sharon are making the usual meaningless statements about "working towards peace" and starting a "new page" in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

In the meantime, Hamas is giving the real picture:

Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced on Monday that they have reached an agreement with the Palestinian Authority according to which the two groups would not be disarmed.

[ . . . ]

"We stressed during the meeting that the Palestinians have the right to continue the resistance [against Israel] and that there would be no attempt to collect weapons from the resistance groups," he added.

"The weapons of the resistance were founded to defend the Palestinian people and resist the occupation. The Gaza victory was achieved with the weapons of the resistance, which is the only strategy to drive Israel out of the rest of our lands."

Any questions?

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