How many more mistakes are left to make before Bush really turns America from super power to superpariah. He's lied to the UN. He's snubbed world opinion and invaded a sovereign nation. He's deceived the American public, attacked constitutional rights, created prison camps where individuals all but vanish, he's involved with all sorts of skulduggery over Enron and Haliburton. He tries to hide from the public every meaningful bit of information about his administration behind a cloak of feel good platitudes. He apologizes only because it serves a public relations function and now he's standing by secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld while the world looks on in disbelief.
He needs to take this bleak moment as an opportunity to shift American involvement into the hands of the UN or some such multi-lateral coalition who have at least some credibility in the Middle East. Not that the US ever had much but now it's beyond issues of credibilty as Bush stands beside the villians of history in the eyes of many. There is no way in which remaining in Iraq can be good for America or the world at this point.
5/06/2004
E-mail Delays
Probably due to the sassar virus that is causing international havoc with the web, I am recieving e-mails up to 24 hrs after they have been sent, so if it seems like I'm not replying that's why. You can try this alternate e-mail address: design@jamesmac.ca in the meantime.
National Mythology
New York Times op-ed columnist Thoms L. Friedman writes in today's column "We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority and inspiration in the world". This is the mythology that American's have been taught since the days of the American Revolution. The truth is much more complex, but the fact is that in many parts of the world people have for a long time politely nodded their heads to America's face, while behind her back muttering amongst themselves how naive she is, or arrogant, or deluded. At it's most benign the idea fo America's nobility is seen as quaint and its most virulent as a dangerous and oppressive ideology.
I can't pretend to speak for the world, and there have been, and still may be people who hold America's story to be factual, but in all my travels and encounters with people of many nations: Russians, Indians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, Germans, French, Britians, Chinese, Japanese, Ugandans, Italians, Saudis, Egyptians, Swedes, Bengalis, Poles among others there was often struck a common tone in conversations relating to America - America is interested in one thing: America.
National self-interst is the norm. What makes this different is the belief that ones country is morally superior. Many Canadians are gulity of this same idea. Our myth is that we are a peaceful, gentle, liberal, nature loving, caring people. Well that's a myth as well. National myths can serve as models by which a state and its citizens can act, but when the story is not lived up to we live in a state of hypocrisy
I can't pretend to speak for the world, and there have been, and still may be people who hold America's story to be factual, but in all my travels and encounters with people of many nations: Russians, Indians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, Germans, French, Britians, Chinese, Japanese, Ugandans, Italians, Saudis, Egyptians, Swedes, Bengalis, Poles among others there was often struck a common tone in conversations relating to America - America is interested in one thing: America.
National self-interst is the norm. What makes this different is the belief that ones country is morally superior. Many Canadians are gulity of this same idea. Our myth is that we are a peaceful, gentle, liberal, nature loving, caring people. Well that's a myth as well. National myths can serve as models by which a state and its citizens can act, but when the story is not lived up to we live in a state of hypocrisy
Excuses
The repulsive acts of US military on Iraqi detainees continues to be abhorred while excuses are made in the media, including the Canadian media. The issue is being seen in the framework of response to stress and individual psychology. This misses the point that this sort of behaviour is part of a well established "methodology long used by US intelligence to break individuals down so that they arrive at a state of full compliance.
When You're Digging the Deepest Hole Where do You Put the Dirt?
One of the most revealing and persistent of American media responses to the revelation of systematic abuse of foreign prisoners held by the US government, is the sentiment that "this isn't fair" to Americans. "We are good people" say Ted Koppel and Charlie Rose and the rest, "but what will the neighbours think?" Well for one that the US government is gravely criminal and without morals and two as a democracy the government represents the will of the people and reflects the values of American society. Ouch.
Canadian soldiers in the Airborne Regiment committed similar atrocities in Somalia in the 1990's and the country was horrified. The regiment was disbanded as a result. Canada's self-image was put to the test and we largely seem to have conveniently forgotten all about it. Our image as "peace-keepers" remains largely intact.
The US (and the UK) face something much larger because of the scale and the context of the invasion of Iraq and global politics. Basically what has come to the surface confirms what a lot of people in the world already think. It's absolute fodder for terrorist groups and I expect this will define for many people what the invasion of Iraq represents. Rape, humiliation and murder, served with a smile.
Canadian soldiers in the Airborne Regiment committed similar atrocities in Somalia in the 1990's and the country was horrified. The regiment was disbanded as a result. Canada's self-image was put to the test and we largely seem to have conveniently forgotten all about it. Our image as "peace-keepers" remains largely intact.
The US (and the UK) face something much larger because of the scale and the context of the invasion of Iraq and global politics. Basically what has come to the surface confirms what a lot of people in the world already think. It's absolute fodder for terrorist groups and I expect this will define for many people what the invasion of Iraq represents. Rape, humiliation and murder, served with a smile.
5/05/2004
The Crash
I had to take the 24 downtown yesterday. The bus stop is where the car crash occurred the other evening. There were clumps of shattered windshield strips of red and grey metal, bloodstained sidewalk with an orange toy still sticky and wet looking in the middle of it all. When I looked at this seen I felt the plucking of a hidden string that runs from my thorax to my plexus. It vibrated through me for a good while.
Later in the day I was in Indigo and I saw my old room mate for the first time in three years. She was very funny when I said hi. She looked up from her book and very unemotionally greeted me back as if I saw her everyday. She soon warmed up when she saw that I was genuinely glad to see her. I guess there was a lot of friction when we lived together but I had forgotten all of that. We ended up having coffee and she told me all about her adventures in Asia. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was to see her. It's so much easier without the complications of living under the same roof.
Later in the day I was in Indigo and I saw my old room mate for the first time in three years. She was very funny when I said hi. She looked up from her book and very unemotionally greeted me back as if I saw her everyday. She soon warmed up when she saw that I was genuinely glad to see her. I guess there was a lot of friction when we lived together but I had forgotten all of that. We ended up having coffee and she told me all about her adventures in Asia. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was to see her. It's so much easier without the complications of living under the same roof.
5/04/2004
Outrage in Sudan
What is happening in the Sudan right now is a nightmare. Tensions between the ethnically Arabic northern population and the black African people of the south having been ongoing for years in the form of civil war. However things have reached a critical point in which "ethnic cleansing" is ongoing. Over 1,000,000 people have been displaced and more than 10,000 have been killed in attacks by the nomadic Janjawid militias who have the support of the Sudanese government.The nomadic militias force the darker-skinned farmers off the land burning and looting villages practicing systematic rape of women and killing the men.
Take Action The role of the witness.
In Canada:
E-mail: sudanembassy-canada@rogers.com
354 Stewart Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 6K8
Fax 613-235-6880
For US citizens:
Sudanese Embassy to USA
2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel: (202) 338-8565
Fax: (202) 667-2406
To send a letter, email info@sudanembassy.org.
Take Action The role of the witness.
In Canada:
E-mail: sudanembassy-canada@rogers.com
354 Stewart Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 6K8
Fax 613-235-6880
For US citizens:
For US citizens:Contact The US Representative to the UN, Amb. John Negroponte at 212-415-4000. Ask for the establishment of a peacekeeping force by an international body--the United Nations and/or the African Union--to restore order. Insist that the Bush Administration push the government of Sudan to provide full access to humanitarian groups to Darfur, and to facilitate humanitarian assistance to affected populations by making all government resources available for the delivery of aid. [Source: Church World Service Action Alert]
Sudanese Embassy to USA
2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel: (202) 338-8565
Fax: (202) 667-2406
To send a letter, email info@sudanembassy.org.
Have you ever heard the screeching of a braking car and it goes on just a little too long and all of a sudden a second seems to stretch out forever as you wait for the sound of crashing metal and shattering glass. Sadly this the third time since I've been living here that this has happened. Just moments ago. My neighbour Jean Michel ran to the corner and yelled back 'urgence call an ambulance urgence'. They arrived almost instantly. As I walked back to the site I saw a guy walking towards me in silhouette so what I didn't see right away was that he was bleeding from the side of his head. He turned down my street and tried to run but it was clear he needed medical attention. He was a young guy in a red t-shirt with a chain around his neck. Turns out he was the driver. There were a few women trapped in the car screaming. It was upside down on the lawn with the roof partially caved in. It looked really bad. I came home and puked. I think I'm in a bit of shock myself. I pray they are okay.
5/03/2004
There's a crow flying
Dark and ragged
Tree to tree
He's black as the highway that's leading me
Now he's diving down
To pick up on something shiny
I feel like that black crow
Flying
In a blue sky
I took a ferry to the highway
Then I drove to a pontoon plane
I took a plane to a taxi
And a taxi to a train
I've been traveling so long
How am I ever going to know my home
When I see it again
I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue, blue sky
In search of love and music
My whole life has been
Illumination
Corruption
Diving, diving, diving, diving.
Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing
Just like that black crow flying
In a blue sky
I looked at the morning
After being up all night
I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light
I looked out the window
And I saw that ragged soul take flight
I saw a back crow flying
In a blue sky
Oh I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue sky
JMitchell 1975
Dark and ragged
Tree to tree
He's black as the highway that's leading me
Now he's diving down
To pick up on something shiny
I feel like that black crow
Flying
In a blue sky
I took a ferry to the highway
Then I drove to a pontoon plane
I took a plane to a taxi
And a taxi to a train
I've been traveling so long
How am I ever going to know my home
When I see it again
I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue, blue sky
In search of love and music
My whole life has been
Illumination
Corruption
Diving, diving, diving, diving.
Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing
Just like that black crow flying
In a blue sky
I looked at the morning
After being up all night
I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light
I looked out the window
And I saw that ragged soul take flight
I saw a back crow flying
In a blue sky
Oh I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue sky
JMitchell 1975
Beautiful Day
We had three warm sunny days and then a night of rain and I woke up to a green world. The sun came back like it always has and I lay on the grass in the park full of people just within view of the copper church steeple. Luna was chewing on her rawhide bagel when Annick spied us there from her window. She came down to join us in the gold and green and Andy came buy with Marcelle.
This is what I love about my place here and what I am struggling to walk away from: Friends and neighbours, lovers and strangers that you recognize. We had some laughs and made a meal and walked by twilight as the moon came up. All the while the wind was coarsing around in all directions.
Now it's late and the rain is pittering and the wheels of cars are spittering. the loaded air is visiting with damp kisses from lips like the pages of basement books.
This is what I love about my place here and what I am struggling to walk away from: Friends and neighbours, lovers and strangers that you recognize. We had some laughs and made a meal and walked by twilight as the moon came up. All the while the wind was coarsing around in all directions.
Now it's late and the rain is pittering and the wheels of cars are spittering. the loaded air is visiting with damp kisses from lips like the pages of basement books.
5/02/2004
Sproing has Sprunged!
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,
hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.
Rainer Maria Rilke
5/01/2004
The earth is damp tonight, and with that dampness comes the smell of the soil. I'm listening to Loretta Lynn's new album Van Lear Rose. It's good but not a lot different from anything else I've heard. Not to put it down but it's being hyped a lot right now. I went for a walk in the must. Everything is fertile tonight. It feels right to move on, but I'm hanging on. I've had it good here. I've had it good everywhere really. Why is it so hard and so easy at the same time? How can you feel two things simultaneously?
Where am I Going?
I can't believe I'm contemplating moving to Hull. The rents are comprable to Montreal however and I am a Quebec residence although that means more taxes. Rents across the river in Ottawa are about double. I'll admit it still feels good to be moving. I've lived a quasi-nomadic existence and staying in one place feels unnatural to me. I love that rush that change brings. The air seems lighter, the light is brighter. I feel younger. It's all in the head but believe me what's in your head is damned important.
Whose to know where this road will take me but I do know that I need to be on the road, any road. Of course a more glamourous destination would be nice, but I have to build up a nest egg before I can hatch that plot.
I sort of feel the same way I did when I left OS for TO at eighteen. There is some anxiety and excitement at the unknown, a certain sadness at endings, but also a beauty in that sadness. Lush nostalgia decorates everything since I made my decision. It's a good feeling in that I know I had a lot of marvellous experiences here. A lot of heartbreak and turmoil too, but always growing into something new and fuller.
It's the natural conclusion to the chapter titled "The Years After the Marriage". An interm period in which I revaluted, redefined and expanded my sense of self. I charted a new course, one that follows closer the contours of my heart. A journey in which fear is a lesser denizen.
It's always an ordeal to start something new, to burst out of the earth or the womb and face the harsh wind and burning sun, the clamour of life. But that's the point I've arrived at. A secret vessel that has travelled by night has arrrived at the stony shore and now there's nothing to do but disembark.
Whose to know where this road will take me but I do know that I need to be on the road, any road. Of course a more glamourous destination would be nice, but I have to build up a nest egg before I can hatch that plot.
I sort of feel the same way I did when I left OS for TO at eighteen. There is some anxiety and excitement at the unknown, a certain sadness at endings, but also a beauty in that sadness. Lush nostalgia decorates everything since I made my decision. It's a good feeling in that I know I had a lot of marvellous experiences here. A lot of heartbreak and turmoil too, but always growing into something new and fuller.
It's the natural conclusion to the chapter titled "The Years After the Marriage". An interm period in which I revaluted, redefined and expanded my sense of self. I charted a new course, one that follows closer the contours of my heart. A journey in which fear is a lesser denizen.
It's always an ordeal to start something new, to burst out of the earth or the womb and face the harsh wind and burning sun, the clamour of life. But that's the point I've arrived at. A secret vessel that has travelled by night has arrrived at the stony shore and now there's nothing to do but disembark.
