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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2:24 PM
Some truth

Good letter in today's Gazette:

How can a terrorist group that provokes a war subsequently claim to be "resisters" when the going gets tough?

This utter hypocrisy is echoed by Lebanon's prime minister, who initially claimed to be held hostage by Hezbollah, only to proclaim subsequently his outright support for the terrorist group. How in the name of God (anyone's God) can people support a group whose leader is adamantly opposed to a peaceful accord and who has often said coexistence with Jews (not Israelis) is not an option? Racism and hatred don't get any more blatant than this.

What she said.

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7:19 PM
Another anti-racism initiative that's sure to miss the mark

When will people understand that certain ways of dealing with racism only serve to compound the problem?

Take, for example, the planned Quebec anti-racism initiative, which is being launched in response to public hearings and a report by the Task Force on the Full Participation of Black Communities in Quebec. Among the report's recommendations:

- The Quebec government should adopt an official policy to fight all forms of racial discrimination.

- Quebec's civil service should consider hiring quotas for blacks and other visible minorities.

- The province should document how blacks are portrayed in the media so it can inform journalists and media owners about how they ''often portray blacks negatively.''

- The Ministry of Education should review school textbooks to make sure they mention the contribution of blacks and other visible minorities to Quebec and the rest of Canada.

Hiring quotas? Media portrayal standards? Are we really back there again? Hasn't anyone realized by now that this stuff doesn't work?

Anyway, all of this is nothing but a smokescreen. The real problem with anti-racism initiatives in Quebec is that they're politically-motivated. Any real efforts to combat racism would have to expose the nasty little secrets about Quebec society that nobody - particularly the politicians - wants to talk about.

The truth is, racism is a problem everywhere. But in Quebec, it's more politically-correct to be racist against some groups than others. Sure, everyone will get on board when we talk about racism against people with different skin colour... so long as their first language is French. But racism against anglophones? Against Jews? Against Asians? Against groups that the Quebec government won't even allow in as immigrants because their command of the French language is less than perfect? Anyone who dares bring any of those up is accused of being part of the bourgeoisie elite, or the oppressive "rich white English" from "Westmount" trying to keep down the poor, downtrodden working-class French.

Most of us who live here know that Quebec society has evolved past these outdated stereotypes. So why do government officials still insist on propagating them? And why is it that any discussion of racism only focuses on some groups and not others?

Quebec society is much more open-minded, multi-ethnic and multicultural than it used to be. Look how tolerant we are for, say, Hezbollah supporters who want to march downtown with flags comparing Israelis to Nazis... and with the backing of prominent Quebec politicians.

But racism isn't going to go away here until we scrape under that surface. In the meantime, initiatives like the one proposed by the Quebec government serve only as expensive window-dressing.

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7:18 PM
That didn't take long

One of the world's wealthiest terror widows, Suha Arafat, has gotten remarried... reportedly to a gold-digger after her considerable fortune:

According to rumors, Yasser Arafat's widow marries Tunisian president's brother-in-law, who was supposed to marry her sister, but chose Suha due to her large fortune.

What, you mean he wasn't after her looks and charm?

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7:03 PM
Cease-fire update

So let's see, what can be said about the past 48 hours?

Israel has begun pulling out of Lebanon. But the UN peacekeeprs aren't going in - and nobody's willing to hold Hezbollah to its obligations.

In the meantime, the Lebanese army is moving to take positions in South Lebanon... but not to displace or disarm Hezbollah. On the contrary, Hezbollah's favourite puppet government has reportedly struck a deal to allow the group to keep its weapons. (Siniora now denies this, but actions here will speak louder than words).

Oh, and the kidnapped soldiers? Still not released.

What exactly is the basis for the claim that this cease-fire is in any way, shape or form good for Israel?

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11:07 PM
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's blog

Seems that in addition to calling for Israel's destruction, denying the Holocaust, and developing nuclear weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's list of hobbies has expanded to include blogging.

I wonder if this will be any more interesting than Paul Martin's foray into the blogosphere. By the looks of it, not so far.

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11:03 PM
No smoking at home

The new smoking ban in Quebec has made restaurants, bars and clubs much more pleasant places to be. But even I admit that this is going a little far:

“There are more cases this year of people telling us they've been refused an apartment because they smoke,” said Francois Saillant, head of Front d'action populaire en reamenagement urbain, a prominent local tenants' rights group.

Quebec's landlord association says some of its members have suddenly become interested in inserting no-smoking clauses into their leases.

If they're going to target smokers, do you think they can do anything about my pothead downstairs neighbours who leave the building smelling constantly of marijuana?

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10:59 PM
From bad to worse

In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers rejected peace talks. They're spoiling for all-out war over there, and don't look now, but it's about to get worse.

I wonder whether, if the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon actually comes into effect tomorrow, news outlets will bother sending more than a token representation over there to cover what's really going on? The cynic in me doubts it very much.

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10:49 PM
Oh shut up!

To all the people complaining about the new carry-on restrictions on airplanes: shut up!

What do you think the friends and family members of the victims of 9/11 would say if we asked them whether they would have put up with the inconvenience of extra security regulations on 9/10?

Amazing how, now that one of the worst terror plots in history seems to have been foiled, all anyone can focus on is how they're being inconvenienced. Instead of blaming the airlines, the security personnel, and the government officials, maybe people could try directing their anger and frustration at the terrorists for a change?

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10:25 PM
Cease-fire round-up

Meryl gives it a D. Allison believes Ehud Olmert's days as PM are numbered. In an op-ed in Ha'aretz, Moshe Arens claims that Israel's war was too much for its leaders to handle. The Jerusalem Post reports that Hezbollah has been strengthened immeasurably. Yoram Kaniuk in Ynet writes that the IDF lost this war and wasn't up to the task. The general consensus is that the cause was just but the execution was severely flawed.

Israel didn't achieve any of its continually-revised objectives.

Get back the kidnapped soldiers? Nope.

Destroy or then weaken Hezbollah? The opposite happened - Hezbollah has been strengthened in popularity among a Lebanese population who largely rejected them before. So much for the naive goals at the start of the war that had Israeli leaders actually believing that the Lebanese citizenry would take up common cause with Israel.

Disarm Hezbollah? On paper, yes. In practice? I don't think anyone is quite that naive. And with Iran and Syria emboldened, this does not bode well for the near future.

Encourage the Lebanese army to implement 1559 and take control of southern Lebanon? On paper, maybe, but in practice, Saniora has become more of a puppet of Hezbollah than ever before.

Install an effective neutral peacekeeping force as a buffer? Instead of NATO, Israel got stuck once again with a crippled UN force that is more likely to be part of the problem than part of the solution.

World opinion? No comment. Things weren't good, but then, they were never good on that score even beforehand.

Sure, the Israel cabinet is spinning the cease-fire as good news. What else can they do? But there will be a lot of tough questions being asked in the days ahead.

Israel had no choice: it was attacked and had to respond. But it isn't always enough to be right. You have to be right, and you have to win.

The good news is, hopefully - hopefully - thousands of Israeli soldiers can come home, and thousands of civilans can return to their homes. In the short term, there's no doubt that everyone wanted to see an end to this crisis - civilians in Israel and Lebanon alike were paying far too heavy a price. But the long term is worrying.

Pessimism when it comes to the middle east is hard to avoid, and I'm not really in the mood to play silver-lining today.

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10:19 PM
The last straw

All right, that's it: It was one thing when it was just getting Google to censor search results or other such "minor" infringements on freedom of speech. But now China has gone too far: it's restricted the Simpsons:

D'oh! China has banished Homer Simpson, Pokemon and Mickey Mouse from prime time. Beginning Sept. 1, regulators have barred foreign cartoons from TV from 5 to 8 p.m. in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios, news reports said Sunday. The move allows the Monkey King and his Chinese pals to get the top TV viewing hours to themselves.

Foreign cartoons, especially from Japan, are hugely popular with China's 250 million children and the country's own animation studios have struggled to compete. Communist leaders are said to be frustrated that so many cartoons are foreign-made, especially after efforts to build up Chinese animation studios.

The most ironic part of this news story? That China, a Communist nation, is really doing nothing worse than what the CRTC does here in Canada. Ain't it great living in such a free country?

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