Pickers CAN be choosers

May 9th 2008 – Myanmar, or Burma, has refused the financial and logistic assistance from the United States whilst coping with the aftermath of devastating cyclone Nargis. Whereas preliminary reports gave us grizzly figures of 1, 2 and 4 thousand casualties, today, we have been made aware of the official, conservative number of 23,000 fatalities and 1.5 million inhabitants affected by the cataclysm. Furthermore, the United Nations has advanced the more plausible (according to them) number of 100,000 casualties. President Than Shwe’s gouvernment has refused American help and is apparently indifferent to the difficulties his country is having with Western aid in general. Instead, Shwe is focusing on a referendum for a new constitution. A referendum in a military dictatorship is surely more important than feeding children and housing families. There probably was no way to doctor the results a few weeks later rather than now.

Weather, Customs and general tensions have prevented most, if not all international aid (from countries and NGOs) from reaching anyone in Burma. For example, The United Nations Food Programme has been able to provide a full three planes of food to the Burmese people in the past seven days (.5% down, 99.5% to go). Unfortunately, these people seem to want to eat EVERY day; they should go vote instead. Political tensions between Burma and the US have made it so that they refused the logistics and material help of the wealthiest and most organised nation on the planet. Instead, they are accepting supplies from Vietnam and China, without necessarily having any way to distribute the relief effort once they have it.

It is quite simple; I understand the Burmese gouvernment’s reluctance to accept American and European administrators within their borders. You have to realise most of these helping nations have never recognised the current government of that country, in place since the early 1990s and thus President Than Shwe has been extremely reluctant to appear in public or negotiate internationally. On the other side, all that is left is for the afflicted Burmese people to die. The Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations have already reported massive outbreaks of diseases in the new refugee ghettos.

It is quite unfortunate yet not very original for a country with socialist/communist tendencies.

Needless to say, World War II was the most destructive and traumatising conflict in recent history and the scars that it left in Europe were greatly crippling in the late 1940s. Germany, France and the United-Kingdom, the three financial motors of Europe were economically, militarily and politically devastated. To the rescue comes the United-States and the Golden ‘Marshall Plan’. Beginning in July of 1947, President Truman offered financial assistance, not loans, to all allied countries, the Soviet Union and all its communist friends. Whereas Western Europe received over 13 Billion US dollars in reconstruction help, the USSR and the Soviet states refused the help for reasons of pride and for vague principles such as ‘avoiding the United States’ Dollar imperialism’. In all fairness, Stalin didn’t need the help since he found a handy third solution past accepting or refusing international help. He simply exterminated the poor strata of his society (who were deviants by definition) and by nationalising all industries and farms without compensating the former owner. It was the perfect plan except the Soviets spent the following 40 years monopolising up to 40% of their annual income on thermonuclear devices, ICBMs and Ghetto Space shuttles (i.e. the 1961 makeshift lemon in which Yuri Gagarin went to space in).

Starting this Monday, all Non-Gouvernmental Organisations that wish to help have vowed to try and get their relief to the population despite Burmese bureaucracy. As long as President Bush can refrain from saying the exact same thing, we should be able to avoid a second Iraq War and a third Vietnam War.

Good night and good luck to the Burmese people, don’t forget to go vote.

(Oddly appropriate 1948 poster for the Marshall plan - The before and after satellite images of ravaged Burma)

End.

Angry Lesbians

May 1st 2008 – Inhabitants of the Greek isle ‘Lesbos’ are going to court to petition for the outlawing of the term ‘Lesbian’ used by gay activists and communities. If successful, the Greek ‘Lesbians’ (as in inhabitants of Lesbos) will pursue the enactment of an international ban. They claim that the use of the term by gay communities is disgraceful, creates social problems and ‘violates their human rights’ (BBC News Service). Needless to say, whereas the inhabitants of Lesbos take this dead seriously, the gay community has responded with much levity and triviality.

On the one side, up to 350,000 people call home the legendary island of Lesbos. Their ancestral roots reach back past the modern era, survived the Hellenistic civil wars (323-30 BC), the classical and archaic Greek periods dominated by Sparta, Athens and Thebes (600-323 BC) and could even originate from autochthonous inhabitants from the 7-8th millennium BC. It has an illustrious history connecting ancient Greek wars to Turkish invasions, to a current frontier land between the Greeks and their timeless nemesis, Turkey (Asia Minor/Anatolia/Persia/Ottoman Empire/Byzantine Empire depending on the era). Thus, we may well understand and even empathize with the cause of these Lesbians who have a timeless claim to their civic/national designation that even predates the liberal homosexuality of ancient Athens. Furthermore, today, homosexuality has definitely lost its once accepted aspect in the eastern Mediterranean and carries a heavy social stigma. To conclude, the embarrassment of the inhabitants of Lesbos as well as the Greek government and people may soon lead to the renaming of the island after its capital city, Mytilene.

On the opposing side, gay rights movements, the international gay community and the rest of contemporary civilization have used the term ‘Lesbian’ since it was defined as feminine homosexual relations in the 1870 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. I might add that there is a direct connection between the term and the island in ancient Greek mythology/lore. The Poetess Sappho was, it is generally believed, from Mytilene on Lesbos in the 7th-6th century BC. She wrote of love and infatuation between women (also between women and men) although very rarely wrote of intercourse (if at all). Having very little written records of women before the Renaissance, never mind women writing about homosexuality, she was chosen to represent the gay female community and thus ‘Lesbian’ (as well as ‘Sapphic’) has since passed into the gay ethos. From where I stand, this seems to be a legitimate and respectful appropriation of ancient history/mythology to represent a certain concept/identity. Today, the gay community probably does not have in mind the tarnishing of the national identity of the Lesbian people; I doubt most of them knows it exists. It can easily be interpreted as a subtle tribute rather than a direct affront.

I know what you are thinking: the people of Lesbos have a legitimate right not to be humiliated and have a traditional claim to the term meanwhile Lesbians now use the word proudly to represent themselves and their sexual identity, PICK ONE! All right, here goes. I find it highly doubtful the inhabitants of Lesbos will be able to patent their regional nationalism and sue every gay woman on earth; Albania could then sue everyone who uses the term Pyrrhic victory, Belgium, whomever uses Waterloo and Israel, could simply sue everyone. Furthermore, the root of the problem seems to be that they are disgraced, ashamed and socially penalized because of their association to homosexuality. Maybe their energies should be refocused on the real source of this problem: the Greek mentality that associates homosexuality with disgrace, shame and social deviance. We have to be honest here, most people in California can’t point to their own country on a map; they certainly don’t harbour nefarious designs for the people of Lesbos. In that same vein, ignorance is not a valid excuse for the lightness with which the gay communities are treating the preoccupations of the Lesbian people. They are displaying their belief that gay rights are extremely important in all facets of society yet people that want to preserve national dignity are seemingly a big joke.

All in all, Lesbos is in an impossible situation because mental structures in the near-East will not change soon and gay females will be termed ‘Lesbians’ for at least a few more centuries. Also, gay communities need to seriously revamp their Public Relations office and stop staring exclusively at their penultimately important, gay belly-buttons.

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(Pictured: Sappho, as painted by Gustav Klimt - Lesbos, this is where you would point on a map)

End.

Differently-abled Bears

April 26th, 2008 – A Canadian gouvernmental panel has declared that the 15,000 remaining polar bears are ''at risk'' in the great north due to hunting and global warming. Furthermore, this panel concluded that, unfortunately, the polar population was not declining fast enough to be declared an endangered species. Instead, they have assigned to it the PC/alarmist for the fun of it, term ''species of special concern'', or what I call ''bearcapable''.

Once again the eco-friendly lobby groups, and the political parties liable to gain by catering to them, are stirring up a storm of controversy where there is none. They even admit there is no immediate danger yet this story is on every major western media service this morning. Other lesser concerns include: a pending civil war in Zimbabwe, dozens dying in renewed Gaza fighting, Syria trying to build a nuclear reactor, the failure of teen abstinence programs in the US and a man being killed by a shark in California. The green lobby thinks too much and doesn’t necessarily need to invent concern where there is none; they could simply trivialize important news towards their cause. Example: The South African marmot population declining rapidly amid Zimbabwe tensions, Murdered Palestinians polluting arable soils by not being recycled, Syria making great strides in eliminating dangerous fossil fuels and going ''green'' with nuclear power (you see the play on words there?), Teen abstinence program fails while vegan propaganda soars and finally, Pacific shark population endangered by fatty diet. It’s not perfect but then again, I don’t have the hundreds of millions of dollars in discretionary funds to twist these stories in a properly questionable manner.

On the other hand, the Polar bear population WILL adapt to receding ice sheets and the Canadian government can certainly impose a limit on a number of polar pelts we are allowed to gather. To be fair to humans, polar bears have no natural predators, kill many baby seals and wear fur, what a hypocritical bear. They also seem to be using advanced technology such as winter camouflage and thermal invisibility, what devious and shameless creatures! You see, anthropomorphisation (the assignation of human emotion, values and motivations to animals) has to go both ways if PETA shows us pictures of ''depressed'' test rabbits and ''happy'' released lab rats.

To tie in the concepts of obeying to the whims of the green lobby and their misdirection/manipulation of the public, we are taking a trip to 1739…39…9…9…(echo). Benjamin Franklin and the other founding father could disputably have a bone to pick with the massive urbanization of the American east coast, considering that tanneries and butcheries operate directly in city centers, dumping their toxic waste into the streets. Later in the XIXth century, Franklin’s petition of ''natural rights'' inspired other green movements, mostly championed by artists… One such writer was Henry David Thoreau. During his illustrious career, he retreated from society into the deep wild and wrote about Nature’s inherent and primary rights. In his book ''Walden'', he even cited that people should become intimately close with nature (I kid you not). Not to compare Thoreau with Al Gore but at least the former seemed to personally apply his preaching whereas the latter drives around in a diesel limo fueled by self-satisfaction. Thoreau greatly influenced the masses and therefore the government by propagating his views of subservience of human rights to nature (screw the slaves, they are keeping the cotton and tobacco fields happy).

Back to 2008…08….8…8…(echo), don’t get me wrong, I respect people who stand up for a cause they believe in. I just question the priorities of such people and lose all respect for them when they try to manipulate public opinion through alarmist propaganda. The special needs bears will probably not know they are now a species of special concern or that I am laughing at them (hopefully). They are only concerned with the juicy fish that doesn’t know what’s coming and the native hunters running after it. The Canadian government needs to either put more money in tax reforms or put more money in Bear legislation. One thing they absolutely have to do is stop creating committees that pump out fatuous and useless reports with no concrete results, simply to capitalize on the green fad.

(I promise I will lay off Al Gore for a few months)

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(Pictured: Henry David Thoreau, trying to spot a foxy tree hole - Two Polar bears evolving bipedal movement to one day replace us all)

End.

Feed the world, make it a greener place

April 13th 2008 – The Haitian president has been ousted and riots are breaking out worldwide over a food “shortage”. This follows an explosion in food prices in every country, a special downer if you live in a country where supper is a luxury; you may even notice that the bread at your local bakery has gone through a price mark-up of over 200% in the past year. The culprit, in two words, can be summed up as Al Gore.

Granted, I have to nuance my accusation and clarify that former vice-president, Nobel peace prize winner and all-around swell guy Al Gore is not personally going around the world to raise prices like an evil version of that damned Wal-mart smiley face...but I digress. The main reason that the food prices are increasing astronomically is simple supply and demand. We are producing less and less food and for some reason, demand is not going down. Why are we producing less food? It’s simple, the basic grains produced worldwide are no longer exclusively going towards the production of food and delicious Whiskey, it is also going towards the processing of ethanol. This wonder-juice is used in hybrid and eco-friendly cars in the western world and in the misguided third-world countries that want to please Europe and America by reducing pollution rather than feeding their “electors” (*see the current situation in Zimbabwe). Famine was soooo eighties, sorry Somalia, 2008 is a bad year to be hungry, Bob Geldof would have cared a lot more if it were thirty years ago.

I am now speaking to my several fans on the African continent (all 7 of them). Here is something, perhaps obvious, that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United-States, the European Union, etc. will not overtly tell you. Trees, whales, baby seals, Algae, Kiwi birds, leg hair, Halliburton, Britney Spears, Survivor and Pandas are all more important than you. With the hundreds of million, even billions of American dollars pumped into non-governmental organisations by the aforementioned economic world powers, we could easily feed you but if we do, the panda (an animal that, for all intents and purposes should be extinct, check out their mating practises...seriously) will die out forever. Perhaps I am being overly dramatic yet I don’t think I am guiltier than hippies chained to a tree while collecting welfare cheques.

I could trivially pick a historical example where food was a secondary priority to environmentalism except that THIS IS THE FIRST TIME EVER. Just as AIDS, hair metal, new wave music and communism, the western world seems to treat famine like a fad of the eighties. I agree we have to replace our oil consumption with a new source of energy, if only to prepare for the inevitable shortage of the material. Except that, on a quick list I drew up, converting food to fuel is nowhere near the top of the list (human waste is – think about it, you park on the side of the highway and go at it in your gas tank’s intake...). I could say we have to prioritise yet most of us don't have the time to go out and care, mush less do something about it.

Rick Astley is making a comeback, maybe famine is next.

(Pictured - the last time the world cared about famine and Bob Geldof - Al Gore, coming for you.)

End.

(Post scriptum: This is only to say that my final exams are soon here and thus the interval between each post is growing but it warms my heart to accuse Al Gore of encouraging thousands of deaths every day. Give the man another award!)

Politicians? Flawed? It simply can't be!

Tuesday April 1st 2008 – Finland’s foreign minister, Ilkka Kanerva, has quit after a slew of his text messages were printed in Helsinki. These messages vividly indicated the minister’s fetish for strippers and specifically his affinity for their underwear. That same day, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern resigned after 11 years in power amid confessions that he received bribes from major companies during the 1990s’ Irish economic boom. A few weeks ago, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was also exposed by the publication of text messages that showed he was having an affair with a stripper. Unfortunately or ironically, your choice, he testified to the contrary during a police scandal inquiry and thus today he faces 15 years of jail time for perjury and impeding a federal investigation. Finally, last March, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned after it was discovered that he was repeatedly availing himself of the services of a very high-class prostitute (Keeping in mind he was elected on a strict platform of anti-prostitution legislation and crackdowns).

I could easily bash these two-timing hypocrites for their lies, infidelities and perversion of a judicial system they pretend to uphold, yet I will leave them alone because they either got or are going to get what is coming to them. I WILL focus on my favorite target, Al Gore….I mean, mass worldwide media.

Concerning the Spitzer case, the story went around the world in a flash and various impartial commentators from Fox News to Al Jazeera had their self-righteous two-cents to put in. They claim that politicians must be ethically irreproachable, morally flawless and socially minded (Al Jazeera was actually babbling something about Satan or Bush or Virgins…my Arabic is rusty). Once again, the media does not BELIEVE what they are saying; they aim only to scare and to expose these trivial cases in a sea of mediocre and unimportant news that is the beginning of 2008. Don’t kid yourself, the only people that can actually achieve any position of power in the Western world MUST, by definition, be ethically questionable, morally flawed and self-centered. They DO care about the citizens they represent yet this is only to fuel their own massive ego. To back up my claim that the media don’t actually believe what they are printing, I simply refer you to the veritable pornucopia of sexual misconduct and questionable practices that Western World leaders have engaged in over the last century, some of them easily brushing them off to even be reelected.

It would be much too tempting to digress into the atrocities of the fascist of communist dictatorships of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Ceausescu, Pinochet, Stalin, Hoenecker… so I won’t. Instead, let me illustrate some virtuous men that were the elected representatives of supposedly virtuous nations. For the USA, Slick Willy Clinton and his magical cigar (with a side of perjury…and no, it does NOT depend on what my definition of IS is) still fostered the biggest economic boom since the sixties and today, we find the whole Lewinsky thing funny. Richard Nixon finally pulled out of Vietnam after a catastrophic campaign and went on to break several laws at the Watergate Hotel. He is now remembered as a famous Halloween mask. For Great-Britain, one of Prime Minister Lloyd George’s ministers in 1922 was Sir Oswald Mosley, a man who went on to form a British fascist movement whilst vacationing with Hitler in Munich (I couldn’t help myself). In Canada, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien physically assaulted a photographer in front of dozens of witnesses in the late 90s, he was reelected three times!

Canada can help tie up my point. Since the conservatives took power in 2006, they actually have kept their electoral promises. This has been published in every Canadian medium as irregular and shifty since people are definitely not used to this. To this day, Canadian media have been trying to literally find corpses in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s closet or porn titles on his film rental records or a subscription to fisting monthly... We KNOW our politicians are cunning, clever and two-faced. We get confused when they hide it too well and even disappointed if they are honest. Come on Mr. Harper throw us a bone here, anonymously send us your text messages so that we don’t die of news deprivation.

The media are disgusting, we are disgusting for reading them and our politicians must be equally disgusting if they are to truly represent us.

(Pictured: Richard Nixon, not being a crook - Ex-governor Eliot Spitzer looking like he really regrets it and his wife in the background who is going to make him REALLY regret it.)

End.