Things about ‘The Tyee’ that you should know…
January 31, 2009
Did you know that the Tyee is one of the premier news-gathering institutions in the country.With a readership of approximately 200,000 and over 15,000 visits a day.
Imagine,all that goodness with a mere ten people on salary,a few hundred unpaid contributors and a budget of about half a million bucks.
Ad revenues account for only 20% of the budget,as compared to 80% for mainstream publications.
David Beers founded The Tyee in 2003 after he was fired from the Vancouver Sun for as he put it…
writing a touch too freely about freedom of speech in the wake of 9/11
Originally from San Francisco Mr Beers is in his early fifties.Before coming to Vancouver he worked as an editor for Mother Jones and the San Francisco Post.Mr Beers has also written articles for dozens of publications.For example Harper’s,The Nation and Vogue to name but a few.
CanWest can keep the ‘Vancouver Sun Bore’ and ‘The Province Rag’,give me ‘A Feisty One‘ any ol day,thank you very much.
Read more about the Tyee @ The Walrus Blog
Speaking of Anti-Semitism
January 28, 2009
The latest Israeli/Jewish soccer fan chant,goes something like this…
“Why have the schools in Gaza been shut down?” sang the crowd.
“Because all the children were gunned down!” came the answer
Now imagine if that chant was shouted out in Arab stadiums,and referred to Jewish children being gunned down by Arabs.
And the “winners” are hypocrisy & hate.
H/T Stageleft
UPDATE from Amnesty International,Israeli Soldiers leave Gaza homes in devastated condition.And lest Palestinians forget a little graffiti to remind em what it was all about …
we came to annihilate you
Just one more law…
January 27, 2009
One more “tool”,and all will be “well“…
Montreal Police want a law passed that would allow them to arrest/fine any one who dares to mouth back or god forbid,calls them “pigs” or even worse “doughnut- eaters”.Ouch,now there’s a low blow.
Montreal police have asked the city to empower local officers to crack down on insult-hurling citizens – likely with a blow to their pocketbooks.
Of course it will be up to the individual police officer to decide when and if they are being “insulted”.Yep that will work,it will definitly “free up” the over loaded courts.
What’s next laws against gestures ? What if I snort ,say in the manner of a pig ? What about doughnuts,can I offer a police officer a doughnut ? After all cops like doughnuts,don’t they ?
Damn it you will “respect” me,even if undeserved ,because damn it I’m the “man”…what’s that you dissing me ? Don’t make me pull my tazer …
Gawd what a bunch of whiners.
Sid Ryan,Academics,Freedom of Speech,Hypocricy & Israel
January 25, 2009
Watching Terry Glavin , Andrew Potter and Warren Kinsella brandishing the blunt instrument of anti-semitism is truly entertaining to witness.
Their phony self righteous indignation and ham fisted ridiculing of Sid Ryan is akin to the, mean spirited he said she said gossip,one normally associates with the right-wing radio talk show circus.
Having followed and read many interesting articles & books by all three of these guys,I for one find their views on this “issue” perplexing & simplistic. Indeed totally out of character with what I have come to expect & appreciate in their books & writings.This particularly applies to Terry Glavin who’s many books I have not only enjoyed,but found value in.
For sure some of what Sid Ryan had to say was not only ill conceived , but dumb,in fact many on the “left” have spoken out against Sid Ryan’s absurd statement,including this blogger.
But that said he sure as hell should not be labeled anti-semitic ,nor should he have to fear losing his job due to the pressure from the self righteous peanut gallery.Particular for something as trivial,as thinking out loud.
Where is the outrage over the brutal killings,of hundreds upon hundreds of Palestinian civilians 1/3 of whom were children, by Israel ?… i.e,the events that led Sid Ryan to express outrage against Israel’s actions,in the form of a CUPE resolution(words).
Anyway one cuts it,Sid Ryan’s call for a “boycott of Israeli academic’s” which was to be included in a CUPE resolution ,was not motivated by intolerance or “anti-semitism”.Rather it was more a lapse in judgment,to much tongue wagging and not enough thinking.
Where is the outrage and indignation from Terry Glavin,Andrew Potter or the academic “community” in general in response to Israeli actions,i.e the banning of authors & academics and by extension freedom of expression.For example Norman Finkelstein…
Just one of many academics & scholars,who are banned & harassed in Israel .
What of the Israeli actions that prevent Palestinian students,writers and academics from attending Universities outside of the occupied territories ? Or of fulfilling scholarship possibilities etc etc ?
Where is the outrage over Israeli actions,i.e the bombing of Palestinian and U.N,schools and universities ?
Their silence on these real issues, as compared to their shrillness on faux issues,is not only deafening but casts a long shadow of doubt on their ideas of intellectual fairness & honesty.
Dances with Contradictions:Indigenous “Success” Through Assimilation
January 20, 2009
Ethan Baptiste’s review of Calvin Helin’s much touted book Dances with Dependency: Indigenous Success through Self-reliance (self published by Mr Helin after 32 failed attempts to have it published by a reputable publisher) starts off…
The author provides some excellent interpretations of the historical injustice, critique on current situations and political constrains of Aboriginal governance structures and instills hope in the reader that there is an end, with valid solutions, to such unrelenting problems faced by all Aboriginal people. Tragically, Helin offers nothing innovative or practical and simply mirrors and concedes to the will of the Canadian corporations and government’s wishes. It is tragic because this book is so widely promoted throughout mainstream media as the answer to the problems facing Aboriginal people and now, Indigenous leadership are beginning to acknowledge and endorse Helin’s misguided solutions.
Having read the book,I fully concur.
I would add, like Widdowson’s and Howard’s widely touted book, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry ,the reason that their book,Calvin Helin’s,& others get the coverage that they do…
Is to be found in the way the author’s frame their argument/thesis. That being,around an unchallenged acceptance of the preeminence of settler society. In short they do not rock the boat,and like settler society/”white people” they place the onus on indigenous peoples.
Settlers society gets a free pass to continue on much as it has since first contact,all change must come from indigenous peoples.Indigenous peoples bring nothing to the table.They are the “problem”,a “burden”, for which a “solution” must be found.
As for the indigenous leadership whom have chosen to acknowledge and endorse Helin’s misguided solutions,no big surprise there.After all many “Indian Act Chiefs” are already playing the “whiteman’s” game, as set out & defined in the “Indian Act”.
Rather than insisting that settler society honor and respect the Treaties and agreements that were negotiated in good faith nation to nation, back in the day.Indeed any relationship between indigenous peoples & settler society/Canada,that aspires to be democratic and just, is only possible, if first…
Canada renews it’s respect for these treaties.
Secondly, engages with First Nations peoples with the explicit aim of implementing the provisions as set out in these treaties & agreements.
Read Ethan Baptiste’s full review of ,”Dances with Dependency” here
Disrobing Widdowson and Howard
January 18, 2009
Or as Gerald Taiaiake Alfred would put it…
Redressing Racist Academics, Or, Put Your Clothes Back On, Please! A Review of Widdowson and Howard’s, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry
Finally a review that is actually a review ,unlike the fawning and or promotional nonsense published in the National Post the Globe & Mail ,and the Ottawa Citizen to name a few.
Gerald Taiaiake Alfred writes….
Evidently, Widdowson and Howard get up in the morning and eat a dog’s breakfast of outmoded communist ideology and rotten anthropological theories washed down with strong racial prejudices inherited from their own unexamined colonial upbringings, all of which would turn anyone else’s stomach. Their ideas are, amazingly and unapologetically, the sort of “socialism from above” characteristic of 1930s vintage Stalinism listing upon a ragtag collection of theoretical frames which taken together form a methodological approach remarkable mostly for its inability, like the authors who employ it, to comprehend indigeneity outside of being the object of colonization and empire. To wit: elements of Darwinian evolutionary stages theory, bits of Hegelian historical determinism, and a reliably unsophisticated view of capitalism is a necessary destructive-progressive force leading to the realization of a communist utopia wherein exists a scientifically planned and state organized global society made up of human beings who are worthwhile only to the extent they are “productive”. Thus it is understandable how the authors can, or must, advocate for the destruction of the natural environment by industrial development, and why they must hate and seek to destroy the people most closely connected to and committed to the preservation of nature in the face of capitalist exploitation of the land: Indigenous people.
Widdowson and Howard attempt an awkward and ineffective mental sleight-of-hand trick to deflect anticipated criticism of their attacks on Indigenous people as being racist – as if Widdowson’s simply mentioning a potential charge is a Teflon dress protecting her against it sticking. Rather than speaking about Indigenous people, they speak about Indigenous “culture”. Instead of attacking Indigenous people, they attack the “Aboriginal industry”.
Read the full review of ,”Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry” here
Yet more; Savage backlash – another response to Wente @ Think Salmon
Watch 7 part: Aboriginal Identities,first broadcasted on TV Ontario’s The Agenda
Update Jan 25/09 ; Kathy Buddle reviews “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry”,in the Winnipeg Free Press,Treacherous political path Look at ‘aboriginal industry’ an inept rant
Israel unilaterally declares cease fire
January 17, 2009
Having yet to talk to Hamas,the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
Rather, the Israeli’s negotiated this so called “truce” with the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak .
A dictator alienated from his own people.Indeed a thug with no legitimate right to represent his own people never mind negotiate on behalf of Hamas and the Palestinian people.
To top it all off Israeli soldiers will be staying.
Daring Hamas to continue resisting,first the Israeli invasion,which led to 1200+ dead(1/3rd+children) & now the subsequent Israeli occupation. Should Hamas resist Israel will then point their self-righteous finger , claiming Hamas violated the “truce”.
This is no truce this is a slap to the face. This is Israel telling the Palestinian people we can do anything we damn well please.And if you dare object we will resume our slaughter.
This is a “truce” guaranteed to fail,one that ignores the reality on the ground and the underlying roots of the problem,i.e…
ISRAEL IS OCCUPYING ANOTHER PEOPLE’S LAND,ISRAEL REFUSES TO LET THE PEOPLE OF GAZA MANAGE THEIR BORDERS,AIRSPACE,SEAFRONT,ECONOMY,TAX REVENUES etc etc.
Also it should not be forgotten that the people of Gaza are not even from Gaza. Rather they are from Ashkelon and the fields around it,where they had lived for centuries …
How easy it is to snap off the history of the Palestinians, to delete the narrative of their tragedy, to avoid a grotesque irony about Gaza which – in any other conflict – journalists would be writing about in their first reports: that the original, legal owners of the Israeli land on which Hamas rockets are detonating live in Gaza.
That is why Gaza exists: because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don’t come from Gaza. [@]
Whatever the outcome one thing is clear, Hamas has survived and will continue to.
Indeed Hamas’s support seems to be gaining strengthen, unlike that of the Palestinian Authority,led by Abbas & Fatah which continue to reek of corruption & irrelevancy.
Without a doubt Israel will have to talk with Hamas one day,whether it wishes to or not.Sticking one’s head in the stand will not change the reality that Hamas is a major player. Again, the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
It’s quite ironic,that the so called terrorists, Hamas have killed more Israeli soldiers(ten) as opposed to civilians(3) while the “good guys” Israel have killed more civilians than so called “fighters” & “militants”…
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said some 5,300 wounded had been treated, many at sanctions-hit and chaotic hospitals. It put the death toll to Saturday at 1,206, including 410 children.
A near re-play of the Israeli invasion & bombardment of Lebanon.There to,Israeli’s killed predominantly civilians,hundreds in fact,while the so called “terrorists” Hezbollah killed mostly Israeli soldiers.
UPDATE; Israel admits there were no Hamas attacks against Israel during the cease fire, contradicting their earlier claims & justifications that the Gaza incursion invasion was in response to Hama’s supposed violation of the cease fire.
Israeli Soldiers Refuse to serve in Gaza
January 16, 2009
Social TV ,an Israeli social media organization,interviews Israeli soldiers refusing to serve in Gaza.
I refuse to be inducted into the army
Because I refuse to serve the occupation in any way
We must say we do not agree to commit these crimes
Not in our name
We will not commit war crimes
We will not bomb children,and drive people out of their houses
Background info & Perspectives on Hamas
via Eric Margolis and The Real News Network; Who & what is Hamas , Hamas & the Arab World , Obama & Gaza
A Jewish Canadian’s Perspective on Gaza & Israel
via CBC’s Citizen Bytes; Am I really a bad Jew ?
Over the past nine days I have been watching and listening to others support or oppose the current goings on in the Gaza strip. Like any conflict and especially the Israeli-Palestinian one, there are two sides to every story, except it seems, among Jews.
Here are my views on the situation.
I do not support the offensive in Gaza.
I do believe in Israel’s right to exist.
