Segacs’s World I Know

Today, April 7th, is the “official” day to remember the victims of the genocide that took place 10 years ago in Rwanda:

April 7 will now be set aside in Canada to remember the victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin announced.

“April 7 marks one of the most profoundly tragic days of our time,” the statement from Martin’s office read.

It was on this day in 1994 “that the horrors of genocide were unleashed in Rwanda. Approximately 800,000 people were slaughtered over the ensuing three months,” the statement said.

“The Government of Canada has accordingly declared April 7 as a Day of Remembrance for the victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.”

It would take me days to write about how woefully inadequate this token gesture seems.

“We didn’t know” was the excuse of most of the Western world and international community, who looked on silently while over 800,000 people – mostly Tutsis – were murdered.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan apologized for what he called “sins of omission” in allowing the genocide to happen:

“The international community is guilty of sins of omission,” Annan told the crowd gathered in New York for the summit.

The head of the UN peacekeeping agency at the time, Annan said he thought he did what he could.

“I believed at the time that I was doing my best. But I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support,” he said in his opening speech.

To Annan, I have to say, far too little, and far too late. Canadian Romeo Dallaire, who had a front-row seat for the horrors, blamed the world’s leaders for failing to respond to his cries for action:

The UN force had a limited mandate and an insufficient number of troops and weapons, and that appeals for reinforcements were rejected, Dallaire told the court.

He specifically mentioned France, the United States and Belgium, the former colonial ruler which had the largest number of UN troops in Rwanda, as being “unco-operative.”

“… I did not get intelligence information from them,” he said.

Belgium ordered the withdrawal of its peacekeepers, the backbone of the operation, shortly after Rwandan troops killed 10 of their soldiers.

At least Dallaire went to Rwanda to face down his demons, and commemorate the date. Which is more than can be said for any of the leaders he blamed.

Rwanda is a testament to the complete and utter failure of the United Nations. Period. It’s been ten years now, and people are finally starting to wake up the fact that this international body is completely toothless, and will refuse to take action until it’s ridiculously, tragically far too late.

So we pause for a moment and remember.

But it’s not enough. Instead of a moment of silence for Rwanda, how about a moment of action – for North Korea… for Sudan… for Congo… for people anywhere their lives and freedoms are jeopardized. Because it’s one thing to regret inaction after the fact. Hindsight is 20/20. It’s another thing altogether to witness atrocities being committed right now, even as we speak, and fail to think about how people will think of our failure to act in 10 years from now.

That’s the true lesson of Rwanda. If we say “Never Again”, we ought to mean it.

Well, firstly, it was #1 topic of conversation at tonight’s seder. Considering a large portion of my attending family went to either the grade school or the high school sometime in their lives, it was certainly on the list of topics to discuss. As I’m sure it was at a lot of people’s seders.

Really, if you think about it, whatever sick freaks did this didn’t time it very well. Not only is the school is closed for Passover anyway, but there’s gonna be a lot of angry Jews discussing it at their seders and demanding action.

In the blogosphere, I see that LGF and Burnside have picked up the story. And Stefan Sharkansky wonders whether officials are too politically-correct to release information that would seem to implicate Palestinian-sympathetic vandals as the responsible parties:

The CBC and the Toronto Star might not want to confront the unpleasant truth about the motives and identities of the arsonists, but at least some Canadian journalists are doing their jobs:

The CTV network quoted sources who said the notes denounced recent attacks against Palestinians, including the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Islamic Hamas movement, and threatened further attacks.

The contents of the note and the name of the “unknown organization” that signed the note should be released.

If – and this is a big if – what CTV said is true about the content of the note, then it must – and will – be dealt with. Especially considering the note threatened future attacks, which is truly chilling:

“Our goal was only to sound the alarm without causing deaths. . .but this is just a beginning. If your crimes continue in the Middle East, our attacks will continue,” the letter reads.

There’s no telling whether the assholes who did this were using it as an excuse or cover-up, or whether they really are affiliated with some Hamas-sympathetic group. Not yet anyway. My sense is that the police will release details when they see fit, and until then, they might be keeping them under wraps to help them do their jobs. And anything that increases the chances of apprehending the responsible parties is okay with me.

And the political reactions continue. Here’s PM Paul Martin:

“This is not my Canada. This is not our Canada,” he told reporters in Burlington, Ont.

“They are attacking all of us. And it is only if we are unequivocal in that statement that we join together that we are preserving our values.”

And of course, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler (a UTT grad himself) wasted no time ringing in:

“As students, we experienced anti-Semitism, but it was an anti-Semitism of ignorance, of stereotype, of prejudice. What we have witnessed here today, it’s anti-Semitism of hatred, racism and violence.”

“We will not be intimidated and we will act and we will bring the full force of the law to bear against those who commit these cowardly hate crimes,” Cotler told reporters.

And Mayor Gerald Tremblay:

“These acts will not be tolerated in our city and must be denounced as emphatically as possible,” he said.

It’s good that people are taking this seriously.

Never once in eleven years of Hebrew school did I feel unsafe in my classroom (except for maybe the fear of exams, or a test tube exploding in a science lab). The current students, who are pretty much exactly like me, won’t have that luxury.

I’m just plain angry now. There should be a special section of hell reserved for anyone who targets or frightens innocent children.

Another update: It seems Michael Demmons has picked up the story. And Ted Belman at Israpundit posted about it, and included an e-mail from Lori Anders, who was a grade ahead of me in high school. The Globe and Mail, Gazette, and La Presse all have plastered the story prominently on their front pages. And the AP story is being picked up off the wires by publications as remote as the Kansas City Star.

This is truly sick and disgusting. Someone set fire to the library of U.T.T. St-Laurent, one of the major Jewish elementary schools here in Montreal and the feeder school of my (attached) high school. Not incidentally, it, along with my high school, was also the target of antisemitic vandalism last May. But the sheer hate required to set fire to a library of an elementary school is mind-boggling. Thank G-d there were no children there at the time, and nobody got hurt:

United Talmud Torah School in St. Laurent was the target of an anti-Semitic attack Monday morning as the building was set on fire.

No one was hurt in the blaze that occurred at about 2:30 a.m. The extent of the damage is not known at this time, but it seems to have been limited to the school’s library. The school is located on de l’Eglise St.

Investigators found letters at the scene that were described as anti-Jewish hate messages. They also found signs of accelerants indicating the fire was deliberately set.

I’m truly horrified. I remember we used to have practice drills in grade school and high school, both for standard fires and for “security incidents”. It seemed normal that we had closed-circuit cameras in high school… we saw them as a tool to apprehend students skipping class, not antisemites with agendas. We truly, naively believed that the stories they taught us in Jewish history classes about hatred against Jews were just that – chapters in history books. It never occurred to us that our school was anything but safe.

I feel bad for the students who will have to face the fact that someone set fire to their school. No elementary school child should have that illusion of safety shattered.

Update: RDI has more, including the reaction of Jean Charest:

“De tels gestes sont intolérables, écrit M. Charest, incendier une école est déjà un acte vil, mais quand cela est fait au nom du racime ou de l’intolérance, chaque Québécois doit se lever et le dénoncer afin que cela ne se reproduise plus.”

Strong words from the Premier’s office. But unfortunately, this kind of hate has already recurred far too many times. And I fear it won’t be the last.

This hits way too close to home.

That’s one of those questions that people have stopped even trying to answer. But I wonder… why does nobody notice how senseless the marriage is between self-defined “liberals” and the “Palestinian cause”?

Why, when the Left claims to be for democracy, does it support an autocratic dictatorship over a free and democratic state?

Why, when the Left claims to be for women’s rights, does it support the Palestinians, who pay lip service to gender equity while still living in a society that doesn’t see very much wrong with “honor killings” of a woman who isn’t a virgin when she marries… instead of Israel, where women really do have equal rights in every sense of the word?

Why, when the Left claims to be for minority rights, does it support the Palestinians, who want an Arab-only state (no Jews need apply) instead of the pluralistic democracy that is modern Israel?

Why, when the Left claims to be for gay rights, does it support anti-gay discrimination as opposed to Israel, where (with the exception of marriage) gays have equal rights?

Why, when the Left claims to be for peaceful conflict resolution and against war, does it support the armed intifada and rationalize Palestinian suicide bombings?

How have the Palestinians become the media darlings of the Left, when only a few decades ago, the same idealistic people were rushing to Israel to go work on a kibbutz?

It seems like it should be so obvious as to be a no-brainer. And yet, from Europe to North America to Australia, left-wing groups, academics and student groups, unions and minority-rights groups are all rallying for the Palestinian cause of wiping out the only democracy in the middle east. Whether they claim to be for a two-state solution (but because they support the so-called Palestinian “right of return”, those two states are really both Palestinian), or a “one-state solution” (i.e. Jews as an oppressed minority in yet another Arab state in the mideast), they are, in effect, calling for Israel’s destruction.

Do they really not get it? Do they really have such a hard time seeing that the marriage between the Left and the Palestinians makes about as much sense as, say, the marriage between fundamentalist Christians and Israel? (Don’t get me started on that one…)

Because it seems to me that anyone with truly Liberal values would be first in line to support Israel. And even though this is hardly an original question, I think we ought to keep asking it until answers are forthcoming… until people realize that the motivations of certain groups are not what they may seem… until the Left has a crisis of conscience about its own habit of supporting murderous terrorists and dictators over democracies simply because it’s “fashionable”.

Irony: One of the nicknames of Passover is “chag ha’aviv” – the holiday of spring. Yep. This snowstorm sure makes it look spring-like out there…

But, whether it looks like it or not, the eight days of eating cardboard are once again upon us. And you know that the reason most of us keep at least some degree of kashruth on Passover – even those of us who don’t bother with it the rest of the year – is so we can moan and groan and complain about how bad the matzah tastes.

Passover is different from a lot of other holidays because it doesn’t involve mere ritual or even belief, but action. From cleaning the house and changing over all the dishes, pots, and pans to cooking for two seders with twenty-plus people at each… anyone who wants to observe Passover has to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty, so to speak. It’s not about words, it’s about deeds.

Even for those of us who draw our lines a lot more liberally, Passover is something of a pain. Oh sure, Manichewitz makes out like a bandit, but the grocery bill alone at this time of year is enough to make most of us wonder why the addition of the UP symbol seems to double or triple the price of most items.

But despite all of the annoyances of Passover, there’s something about it that makes it seem, well, to borrow a well-worn cliché, different from all other nights. Coming together to recount history and observe tradition, and – perhaps most importantly of all in these times – celebrate freedom. And there’s a moment when the entire family gathers at the seder table and – in between my uncle’s snoring and my little cousin’s attempt to mash all food items into the carpet – I realize that this is what it’s all about. Cardboard and all.

Chag Sameach.

Well, the Habs ended the regular season with a lackluster win after five straight losses, which doesn’t make me very optimistic for the playoffs.

But looking on the bright side: Boston’s win today will mean we don’t have to face the Leafs in the first round. Rivalry or not, that would’ve been a real blow to Montreal pride if we lost. I’d much rather we take our chances in Boston. After all, we pulled it off two years ago there, so we can do it again.

Go Habs Go!

Yes, I know technically it started two weeks ago. And I know the weather sucks and it doesn’t feel much like spring. BUT… we changed the clocks last night, which means a whole extra hour of daylight!

Woohoo!

Al Qa’eda wants to kill Jews and Americans.

No! Shocking! Quick, someone call a reporter!

Yep, this ranks up there in “duh-factor” with last week’s shocker of a news headline: That if a federal election were to be held in Canada today, the Liberals would win.

You don’t say!

Tomorrow, I’ll probably open the paper and see it announced in big letters that yes, the Earth is in fact round.

If you held the winning lottery ticket to a 30-million dollar jackpot, how long would you wait to claim your prize?

If you’re Raymond Sobeski, apparently patience is a virtue, because he waited an entire year to claim his cash:

“I didn’t want to do anything rash,” Sobeski told reporters on Thursday when he claimed his prize. “I thought it was in my best interest to keep it to myself until I had everything all sorted out.”

Sobeski, who called himself “happily unemployed now,” said he had known since shortly after the April 11, 2003, draw but wanted to get professional and financial advice first.

That sounds reasonable, level-headed, and smart. Actually, Sobeski sounds like the complete opposite of someone who would play the lottery in the first place.

Sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction.

Update: Burnside points out that it seems that Sobeski had a good reason to wait so long to claim his prize: he was in the process of getting a divorce. Wow, if I were his ex-wife, I’d be pretty pissed off right now… and I’d be talking to my lawyer to get my hands on my share.

Update #2: The plot thickens even more. It seems Sobeski has two ex-wives and was behind on child-support payments. I guess all that “financial advice” was really something else, and it seems I have to revise my position and say that Sobeski seems exactly like the kind of person who would play the lottery. What ever happened to deserving winners?