I am beginning this blog on the evening of May 13 because I'm confident the big story will not appear (ever) in the Times and Transcript.
The President of Guatemala (who was almost certainly involved in the genocide of Guatemala native peoples that ran up a death toll of a quarter million) has decared a state of siege against native peoples who are defending their lands against a mining company.
This happens often in Guatemala. People are kicked off their land, their houses destroyed, then land and streams forever poisoned by some of the most brtual and irresponsible mining companies in the world. Those who protest are jailed. Some are quietly murdered. And, if that doesn't work, then the president sends in the army and the police who kill men, women and children indiscriminately - just as they did in the years of the great genocide.
I have often referred to this as a genocide practiced by the government of Guatemala with leadership, agents, and weapons from the US government. I should also have mentioned the mining companies, themselves, as partners in the slaughter.
In this case, the mining company is listed as a Canadian one with headquarters in Texas. It's Tahoe Resources. That's us. I should have realized our role earlier. Canada is a world power in mining. Canada is a major player in Guatemala. Canadian mining companies have a dreadful record of abuse of land and people - especially in Latin America and Africa. Canada, then, was almost certainly a party to the great genocide that President Clinton apologized for, and that the news media did not report. And it certainly is a party to the violence that's happening now in Guatemala.
The people of Guatemala have shown often enough they don't want the mining companies. They're going to get them rammed down their throats, anyway.
Gee, why does that remind me of shale gas companies and New Brunswick?
Well, if it turns into an ecological disaster, our government can always hang up more pictures of the Queen.
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It's now the morning. And what a surprise! The story was not in the TandT today. Maybe tomorrow....
Meanwhile, there is a big story on p. 1. "Time to hike HST, N.B.urged" Yes, we have to raise the HST, and cut government spending - according to the head of Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, who spoke at a Rotarian dinner. That's front page news because - because...well....he's the head of a propaganda front which is strongly supported by the Irvings. So there.
And he's a statistician. Now, that doesn't mean he knows anything about economics or government budgetting. But he is an expert in taking statistics, and making them mean whatever you want them to mean. For example, he can take the statistics on rainfall in Senegal for 1947 and make a pretty convincing argument they show that the Moncton Wildcats will win the championship this year. Or that it's time to raise the HST and cut government spending.
Why did this story make the front page of the TandT? Hey, I told you that AIMS is strongly supported by the Irvings. So whenever they have a story to put out, they call on the head of AIMS to make it sound official. Of course, he can't just say it. You need some sort of occasion of his statement to make it a news story.
And providing occasions is what Rotarians are for. They're genetically engineered to enjoy listening to boring propaganda. And that gives the Irving papers an excuse to send a reporter, and write this up as though it were important.
But, you say, we're in a recession. Isn't this a time when we need to take it easy on taxes that hurt those who are already suffering from falling income? Isn't this a time when we need government services? And haven't most economists decades ago recognized that cutting government spending in a recession is exactly the wrong thing to do?
Well, yes....but that leads to a logic that says the answer is to make the rich pay their share of taxes, and make them cough up on their companies with phony head offices on desert islands that don't charge them taxes. And neither AIMS nor the TandT want that sort of irresponsible thinking going around.
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Section D, NewsToday, is the section which would normally have had the Guatemala story. But native peoples of another country getting beaten, jailed and killed for being in the way of a nice, Canadian company is boring. So section D is mostly lovely pictures of trailers and boats for sale.
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The editorial - surprise!- is about the events centre. (The Tand T is in favour. Whoever writes these editorials is so biased, he's as subtle as a belch from the minister during the moment of silent prayer at a church service.)
Norbert launches into a wild rant about the uselessness and arrogance of our senators. And this is a topic on which he's damn right, even a little gentle. Take a look at the headline, for example, "The senate: a rotting, corrupt Victorian institution". That is far too kind.
Alec Bruce has the sort of "personal story" column that I so often oject to when it's done by a staff writer on the op ed page. But - this one - well, it's different.For a start, it's far better written than the others. It also carries a meaning that I won't pretend I understand yet. It takes some thinking. This one is worth reading.
And, two good columns on op ed.
________________________________________________________________________________
A letter to the editor will bring a humiliated blush to the cheeks of all Canadians. It seems that just after the 9/11 attack, PM Jean Chretien addressed an audience on the subject. The audience included, mind you, the American ambassador and many clergy. And Chretien didn't mention God. This is presented as a characteristic of Liberals as the writer notes that Justin Trudeau favours same sex marriage.
How different, how very different, from George Bush who praised God on an almost daily basis while he killed, crippled, orphaned, widowed millions of innocent people in Iraq, and sacrificed thousands of American lives in an illegal war.
(It's come to this. I'm actually defending Chretien and Trudeau. I never woulda thought it.)
The President of Guatemala (who was almost certainly involved in the genocide of Guatemala native peoples that ran up a death toll of a quarter million) has decared a state of siege against native peoples who are defending their lands against a mining company.
This happens often in Guatemala. People are kicked off their land, their houses destroyed, then land and streams forever poisoned by some of the most brtual and irresponsible mining companies in the world. Those who protest are jailed. Some are quietly murdered. And, if that doesn't work, then the president sends in the army and the police who kill men, women and children indiscriminately - just as they did in the years of the great genocide.
I have often referred to this as a genocide practiced by the government of Guatemala with leadership, agents, and weapons from the US government. I should also have mentioned the mining companies, themselves, as partners in the slaughter.
In this case, the mining company is listed as a Canadian one with headquarters in Texas. It's Tahoe Resources. That's us. I should have realized our role earlier. Canada is a world power in mining. Canada is a major player in Guatemala. Canadian mining companies have a dreadful record of abuse of land and people - especially in Latin America and Africa. Canada, then, was almost certainly a party to the great genocide that President Clinton apologized for, and that the news media did not report. And it certainly is a party to the violence that's happening now in Guatemala.
The people of Guatemala have shown often enough they don't want the mining companies. They're going to get them rammed down their throats, anyway.
Gee, why does that remind me of shale gas companies and New Brunswick?
Well, if it turns into an ecological disaster, our government can always hang up more pictures of the Queen.
_____________________________________________________________________________
It's now the morning. And what a surprise! The story was not in the TandT today. Maybe tomorrow....
Meanwhile, there is a big story on p. 1. "Time to hike HST, N.B.urged" Yes, we have to raise the HST, and cut government spending - according to the head of Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, who spoke at a Rotarian dinner. That's front page news because - because...well....he's the head of a propaganda front which is strongly supported by the Irvings. So there.
And he's a statistician. Now, that doesn't mean he knows anything about economics or government budgetting. But he is an expert in taking statistics, and making them mean whatever you want them to mean. For example, he can take the statistics on rainfall in Senegal for 1947 and make a pretty convincing argument they show that the Moncton Wildcats will win the championship this year. Or that it's time to raise the HST and cut government spending.
Why did this story make the front page of the TandT? Hey, I told you that AIMS is strongly supported by the Irvings. So whenever they have a story to put out, they call on the head of AIMS to make it sound official. Of course, he can't just say it. You need some sort of occasion of his statement to make it a news story.
And providing occasions is what Rotarians are for. They're genetically engineered to enjoy listening to boring propaganda. And that gives the Irving papers an excuse to send a reporter, and write this up as though it were important.
But, you say, we're in a recession. Isn't this a time when we need to take it easy on taxes that hurt those who are already suffering from falling income? Isn't this a time when we need government services? And haven't most economists decades ago recognized that cutting government spending in a recession is exactly the wrong thing to do?
Well, yes....but that leads to a logic that says the answer is to make the rich pay their share of taxes, and make them cough up on their companies with phony head offices on desert islands that don't charge them taxes. And neither AIMS nor the TandT want that sort of irresponsible thinking going around.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Section D, NewsToday, is the section which would normally have had the Guatemala story. But native peoples of another country getting beaten, jailed and killed for being in the way of a nice, Canadian company is boring. So section D is mostly lovely pictures of trailers and boats for sale.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The editorial - surprise!- is about the events centre. (The Tand T is in favour. Whoever writes these editorials is so biased, he's as subtle as a belch from the minister during the moment of silent prayer at a church service.)
Norbert launches into a wild rant about the uselessness and arrogance of our senators. And this is a topic on which he's damn right, even a little gentle. Take a look at the headline, for example, "The senate: a rotting, corrupt Victorian institution". That is far too kind.
Alec Bruce has the sort of "personal story" column that I so often oject to when it's done by a staff writer on the op ed page. But - this one - well, it's different.For a start, it's far better written than the others. It also carries a meaning that I won't pretend I understand yet. It takes some thinking. This one is worth reading.
And, two good columns on op ed.
________________________________________________________________________________
A letter to the editor will bring a humiliated blush to the cheeks of all Canadians. It seems that just after the 9/11 attack, PM Jean Chretien addressed an audience on the subject. The audience included, mind you, the American ambassador and many clergy. And Chretien didn't mention God. This is presented as a characteristic of Liberals as the writer notes that Justin Trudeau favours same sex marriage.
How different, how very different, from George Bush who praised God on an almost daily basis while he killed, crippled, orphaned, widowed millions of innocent people in Iraq, and sacrificed thousands of American lives in an illegal war.
(It's come to this. I'm actually defending Chretien and Trudeau. I never woulda thought it.)
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