2008 Woodie Awards
Is anyone else concerned about the election results north of the border?
Mind you, this is not conservative “lite.” Americans like to joke that a Canadian moderate shares the views of an American liberal (with the logical extension that their conservatives are more akin to our moderates). But the Conservative party, like Republicans, favors outlawing abortion and gay marriage.
Though it isn’t Tiananmen Square, the recent deaths related to a protest in China are just unacceptable. The deaths highlight the Chinese leaders’ negligence to the needs of the rural poor, taking over their land in the name of economic development without full compensation. It also highlights the ineptitude of some local officials who breath and eat corruption. After 16 years since the massacre, Chinese officials should have learned some things about not shooting its own citizens.
RE: 4th Summit of the Americas: Ok, Prime Minister Martin, you may really believe that free trade is the key to helping Latin Americans, but I don’t think they do. Furthermore, it’s not like China and India, the countries he mentions whose growth rates exceeded those of Latin America, were exactly free market economies during their time of growth!
I don’t trust Latin American leaders, either. Latin America is not a picture of prosperity. But I do trust people to know what’s good for them, much more than those who pretend to.
By the way, this NYT editorial is trying way too hard to give time to pro-liberalization arguments. I hardly think that Latin American countries were as full of faith about liberalization 11 years ago as may seem so in retrospect.
The most telling line:
“Still, a small step is better than no step, and perhaps it’s enough that after the last few years of putting Iraq and the Middle East above all else, President Bush is finally paying a small bit of attention to America’s own hemisphere.”
“Own hemisphere.” - our sandbox, of course, that would look exactly the same, or worse, in fifty years, if we didn’t pay any “attention” to it.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a sick person. His comments about Israel also violated the UN Charter. As the “Preamble” makes clear, UN members agree to “practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.” That’s exactly the opposite of the spirit of those comments. So I’m certainly in agreement with Israel’s call to have Iran expelled from the international body.
As I’ve noted before, it’s possible to be critical of the administration of Ariel Sharon- a representative of the political Right in Israel-, and still not be anti-Semitic; to support a two-state solution, and hope that both a democratic Palestine and a democratic Israel can exist side-by-side in peace with a mutual commitment to secular democracy and religious freedom. Consider, for example, the Tikkun community’s vision. But Ahmadinejad has no interest in solutions; he wants to perpetuate old antagonisms. Views like his need to be excised from the discourse.
At HNN:
The announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 has been awarded to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, should remind us of the crucial activities performed by the United Nations.
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