Segacs’s World I Know

There is no feeling quite like the one you get when you leave the office on a Friday afternoon to begin a vacation. The knowledge that if something goes wrong at work, for the next couple of weeks it’s somebody else’s problem, well, it’s kinda nice.

Normally I think of vacations as a summer thing. But after a couple of years of leaving Montreal while the weather’s nice and there are fun things to do, I decided to rethink that strategy this year, and instead depart while it’s cold and snowy to go seek out warmer pastures.

And so, I’m leaving in a few short hours to catch a flight to Costa Rica. Back in a couple of weeks. Try to behave in my absence, k?

London’s infamous mayor Ken Livingstone proved conclusively that his comparison of a Jewish reporter to a Nazi was no isolated slip-of-tongue. Livingstone has consistently refused to apologize for that remark, even refusing to meet with families of Holocaust survivors.

And now we have a better insight into why. Livingstone’s twisted political views clear things up nicely (via Allison):

The dispute between London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Britain’s Jewish leaders was reignited Thursday night when Livingstone branded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a war criminal, the Independent reported on Friday.

Livingstone launched a provocative critique of Israel with accusations of “ethnic cleansing” and demonizing Muslims before calling for the imprisonment of Sharon, according to the British daily.

He also claimed in his article that the Israeli government presented a “wholly distorted picture of racism and religious discrimination in Europe in order to convey the impression that Jews suffer most discrimination.

“The reality is that the great bulk of racist attacks in Europe today are on black people, Asians and Muslims – and they are the primary targets of the extreme right.”

But wait, it gets worse:

“Israel’s expansion includes ethnic cleansing,” he wrote. “Palestinians who had lived in that land for centuries were driven out by systematic violence and terror aimed at ethnically cleansing what became a large part of the Israeli state.”

He added: “Today the Israeli government continues seizures of Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions into surrounding countries and denial of the right of Palestinians expelled by terror to return.

“Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison not in office.”

Hmmm, I can think of someone who has no business being in office here. But it certainly ain’t Sharon. Here’s hoping that Londoners will teach Livingstone a message come next election and toss him out on his antisemitic arse.

Meryl has the scoop on the 3rd annual International Eat an Animal for PETA day:

In honor PETA’s continuing prevarications, and constant annoyance, we once again urge our readers to do what pisses them off the most: Eat meat on International Eat an Animal for PETA Day, March 15th.

[ . . . ]

Remember, nothing says “Eff you, PETA” like a yummy cow dinner. Mm. Cow.

Of all the self-righteous annoying pains in the world, PETA are some of the worst. I will happily eat some sort of poultry on March 15th (which is a week from Tuesday), and I encourage you to do the same.

A car bomb exploded at Joseph’s Tomb today. The Palestinian terrorists were trying to kill the IDF soldiers guarding the worshippers there, but luckily nobody seems to have been hurt.

It’s the same old story, on a different day. There is no truce. Anyone who thinks there still is one, after this attack, the Tel Aviv nightclub bombing, and a host of other attacks and attempts, is either delusional or blind.

I notice one thing missing from this story though: a claim of responsibility. Could it be that the Palestinian terrorists are no longer eager to claim their handiwork because they fear the consequences of Abbas’s “crackdown”? If Abbas were truly cracking down, perhaps. But more likely, the terrorists were just embarrassed this time around at their utter failure to kill Jews.

Nothing much changes.

In what is being hailed as a victory for democracy, Lebanon’s Syria-backed puppet government resigned yesterday in the face of massive public pressure:

Tens of thousands of jubilant demonstrators sang the Lebanese national anthem in downtown Beirut Monday afternoon after hearing over loudspeakers that the pro-Syrian government had stepped down. Prime Minister Omar Karameh announced his government’s resignation during a stormy parliamentary session in which opposition legislators accused him and his government of culpability in the assassination of his predecessor, Rafik Hariri.

The demise of the pro-Syrian government is only the beginning for the opposition, which said its next goal was to force pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign and the Syrians to withdraw from Lebanon, a source close to the opposition told The Jerusalem Post. “We’re determined to raise the roof,” he said.

But while everyone rejoices, the more important question of “what now” is bound to come up. Syria needs to get out. But will democracy truly come in? Or will another bloody struggle, of the sort that Lebanon is so famous for, erupt?

So far the protests have been non-violent, which is a good sign. But Lebanon has a very messy history. There’s somewhat of a power vacuum being created, and we all know that these things rarely end nicely.

Despite that, I have to admit I’m encouraged. The Lebanese people seem to have been recharged in their wish for democracy, and it’s looking more and more like they might succeed in achieving their goal – with implications for the rest of the region as well.

Paul Martin doesn’t want to participate in missile defence, but still wants to be consulted by the US on whether to shoot down a hypothetical incoming missile:

Stockwell Day, the Conservative Party’s foreign affairs critic, laughed off Martin’s demand that Washington would have to alert Ottawa before taking out an incoming missile.

“These missiles are coming in at 4 kilometers ( 2.5 miles) a second, and if the president calls the 1-800 line and gets: `Press 1 if you want English, press 2 if you want French, press 0 if nobody’s there …’ I mean, it’s crazy.”

Day made a funny. Who knew he was capable of one?

Anyway, this is just Canada playing our usual game of handing over the dirty work to our southern neighbour and then criticizing it for not being squeaky clean. Nothing new here.

Russia signed a nuclear fuel deal with Iran.

With Russia trying to re-establish a toehold in the Mideast, and Iran trying to develop the kinds of weapons that will reduce Israel to a radioactive pile of rubble, all I can do is wonder whether there’s anything the US – or the rest of the world – can do to stop them.

The FEUQ is spending $66,000 of student money to run a television ad campaign slamming the Charest government for its decision to convert $103 million of bursaries into loans:

The FEUQ is demanding that the Charest government rescind its decision to transform $103 million worth of student bursaries into loans.

Federation spokespeople maintain that this move is not an effort to rebuild an image some might say was tarnished by the violent incidents that occured at their Monticello demonstration last week, but rather to make the public aware of the issues at stake.

Just to clarify: they’re mad because students will actually have to repay the money they get from the government. Cause that would mean students would actually have to get jobs when they graduate… you know, the kind that pay money.

It’s so much better to live off of handouts that nobody expects you to ever repay, isn’t it? Then you can stay in school forever, taking one class at a time that you never attend, and spend your time organizing protests and drinking fair-trade coffee.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the student protests and strikes are jokes. Quebec students pay a pittance in tuition compared to anywhere else in North America. But the way the student unions work, the people elected to leadership are the ones who promise more strikes, more fights, more protests.

The tuition freeze in Quebec is sort of like ethanol subsidies in Iowa. Everyone knows that they’re damaging, but it is suicidal for any government to even suggest revoking them. And so we have a university system that is cash-strapped and an endless cycle of students coming to believe that it’s more honourable to live off of handouts than to actually work for anything.

*Sigh*.

Allison is tired of the same old story:

We’ve seen this movie before — the Palestinian Authority does nothing, Sharon and the government have no choice politically or militarily but to root out the terror itself, going into Gaza and the West Bank, resuming targeted assassinations, etc. And while they still say they are going ahead with disengagement, the political road to getting out of Gaza will get even rockier and they may have to slow down the pace.

Then the world gets all pissed off at us, and the sparks of potential for a real agreement and progress towards peace quickly get snuffed out.

I would love it if someone would change the script.

Lisa worries about the effects of becoming numb:

I told her that I’d let my guard down. I had lost the ability to shrug off the bombings, and I didn’t think I had the energy to deal with the rollercoaster of emotions again – the adrenalin rush and the grief and the fear.

But most of all, I am afraid of the numbness. Because when unspeakable events occur on a regular basis, survival mode kicks in: you can’t deal with those constant questions about meaning, so you don’t. You become numb. And that means that you lose a bit of your humanity. Because if you cry over every person who is killed, then you go cuckoo. But if you don’t cry, then you’ve lost something important. Empathy. Humanity.

And Imshin went to the site itself and took some horrifying photos.