Segacs’s World I Know

Well I guess it’s safe to travel to Toronto again, according to the World Health Organization.

In the meantime, I was at a convention today with a lot of attendees from Toronto. And I didn’t see a single mask.

Today is Yom Hashoah, the official Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It’s a day to take a moment and reflect. A day to light a candle in remembrance of the six million. This is what the US Holocaust Memorial Museum says about Yom Hashoah:

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and for reminding Americans of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, created by act of Congress in 1980, was mandated to lead the nation in civic commemorations and to encourage appropriate Remembrance observances throughout the country. Observances and Remembrance activities can occur during the week of Remembrance that runs from the Sunday before through the Sunday after the actual date.

While there are obvious religious aspects to such a day, it is not a religious observance as such. The internationally-recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. That is the date on which Israel commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah.

The Holocaust is not merely a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage. It is a remarkable story of the human spirit and the life that flourished before the Holocaust, struggled during its darkest hours, and ultimately prevailed as survivors rebuilt their lives.

For more information, a few good links to visit are the Nizkor Project, the website for Yad Vashem, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s website.

Perhaps not incidentally, Simon Wiesenthal announced his retirement from six decades of work pursuing and catching Nazi war criminals. The 94-year-old and his organisation are responsible for apprehending about 1,100 war criminals, and he is finally ready to quit:

“My work is done,” he said. “I found the mass murderers I was looking for. I survived them all. Those who I didn’t look for are too old and sick today to be pursued legally.”

It may seem like a small event, but Wiesenthal’s retirement is probably symbolic of the turning point that the world finds itself at today. Normally quiet to almost the point of being reclusive, Wiesenthal has spoken out this year about current events, including the riot at Concordia that prevented Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking:

Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal has urged Concordia to reschedule last month’s speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that anti-Israel protesters have succeeded in restricting freedom of speech for the entire student body.

“I never thought I would live to see the day when there would be more open expression of hate against Jews than in the 1930s,” said Wiesenthal in a letter to Rector Frederick Lowy. “Tragically, that is the situation today around the world.”

Perhaps this is never more relevant as right now. The last generation of Holocaust survivors is ageing, and sadly, there will soon no longer be anyone alive to bear witness. The horrors of the Nazi regime will become just another chapter of history, remembered by Steven Spielberg movies and the hundreds of archives that are frantically being assembled by museums and historians. And the more remote in time it becomes, the easier it will be for the racists and revisionists to twist history. And the easier it will be for history to repeat itself.

At the same time, the world is witnessing an outbreak of antisemitism that – while it would be unfair to all to compare it to the Holocaust – is clearly heightened.

Tomorrow’s challenges are already crystallizing today. It will no longer be sufficient to point to history, because too many people are loudly rewriting history to make it fit their prejudices and perspectives.

I’ve frequently heard criticism that there is too much focus among Jewish organizations on the Holocaust, and that we ought to move forward after so long. That may be, but anyone who moves forward without remembering history is bound to repeat it. We say that so often, it’s become somewhat of a cliché. But it is also an irrefutable truth.

Yes, this is a turning point in history. Something to think about in the coming hours of Yom Hashoah.

Well I guess if the doctors are willing to go to Toronto – and infectious disease specialists, no less – it must be safe to travel there.

Just when I think that that the entertainment industry can’t stoop any lower, they release trash like this. No, I won’t go see it no matter how much you pay me.

On the plus side, I went to see Bend it like Beckham last week, which was one of the more entertaining movies I’ve seen in a while. Think of an Indian version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding that meets British mania for football. It drags a little here and there, and falls into cliches, but it was still a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

The WHO may lift the Toronto travel ban that was controversially imposed last week:

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told CBC television that the organization would review Canada’s handling of the flu-like virus on Tuesday and make a decision on lifting the order that was to last three weeks.

“There is a chance the advisory could be changed,” Thompson told CBC.

In the meantime, more cancellations of events in Toronto, including concerts by Elton John and Billy Joel and, much to the dismay of Jon, Michelle Branch.

In the meantime, Josh Freed once again manages to find just the right words for this whole thing:

Incredibly, Toronto the Safe has just been declared one of the most dangerous places on Earth by the World Health Organization (that’s WHO: not WHOM). And while I think the international alarm is unfair and overdone, it has had an effect on me.

This is the first time in my life a trip to T.O. actually feels exciting.

Hogtown has always been the place Quebecers have gone to feel safe from sovereignty, speeding and second-hand smoke. But suddenly it’s a ride on the wild side, and I don’t know quite how to react.

I’d say react just like everyone else: shrug and go about your daily life. That’s what the people in Toronto are doing.

Michael Moore must be disappointed that Charlton Heston won’t be around to make fun of anymore. He’s retiring as the president of the National Rifle Association, thanks to the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Moore may be an idiot, but that doesn’t make the NRA heroes. Far from it. This powerful lobby group has far too much influence in the U.S. government, pressing its “lofty” agenda:

Heston became NRA president in 1998 as the gun-rights group was overcoming a period of internal strife and facing run-ins with the administration of President Clinton. During his tenure, the NRA raised its membership to 4 million members. The group helped send a supportive President Bush to the White House and Republicans take control of Congress.

The NRA also pushed the U.S. House to pass legislation limiting lawsuits seeking damages against gun manufacturers and distributors this year and is gearing up to try and make sure a ban on assault weapons lapses next year in Congress.

Why anyone would need an assault rifle for any remotely legal purpose is beyond me.

The NRA spends billions of dollars a year to ensure that the right to bear arms is expanded at all costs. Sadly, these costs are much higher than monetary. The cost is in the scores of human lives lost each year thanks to the NRA’s radical agenda. I mean, when will people get it?

SARS panic is spreading – sometimes in absurd ways. Now the British Government is warning against travel to Toronto and today’s Gazette had a story (no link) that tells about how children who’ve visited Canada have had to go into quarantine before being allowed back to school in London, England. In one case, two teenagers were not allowed back to school after their ski vacation to Whistler, BC, but, the article says, they managed to talk their way back into class – probably after showing someone a map.

Closer to home, the band Styx cancelled a show (for the second time) scheduled for Montreal because of SARS fears in Toronto, much to the derision of disappointed fans. The morning show on CHOM spent a while making fun of the band and their management.

All of this despite the fact that there haven’t been any reported cases of SARS from people who were not in direct contact with an infected person.

Is all of this scary? Sure it is. But people are going way overboard. This is getting ridiculous.

A jury apparently believed Jaggi Singh’s and his codefendants’ versions of the facts, because they acquitted the three activists of charges of participating in a riot:

“I had to believe we had a jury that could make a statement that it’s totally illegal and unacceptable to criminalize these people for democratically expressing their points of view,” Lescarbeau said later in an interview.

“Now, I believe we still live in a democratic society.”

If you ask me, this is the worst possible news for Singh. Now, whenever he charges that the system is corrupt, he’ll have to explain why he was given the democratic right to trial, and subsequently acquitted. If Canada was really the police state he constantly tries to make it out to be, his propaganda would play much better from a jail cell, wouldn’t it?

From this courtroom, Singh goes straight into preparation for his next trial, in Quebec City on charges of rioting at the 2001 Summit of the Americas, where I suspect we’ll be hearing more of the same defense.

There was another suicide bombing in Israel today.

The terrorist was trying to board a commuter train in Kfar Saba, a town outside Tel Aviv. The hero of the story is a security guard, Alexander Kostiyuk, 23, of Bat Yam. So far the only reported casualty, Kostiyuk was apparently suspicious of the bomber, and detained the him by asking for his papers, essentially acting as a human shield when the bomber then detonated his explosive on the platform:

“This is a true hero who prevented a huge disaster,” Sharon district police chief Amichai Shai told The Jerusalem Post in an interview after the attack.

At least 14 other people were injured.

The timing of this attack is just further evidence that the Palestinian terror factions will never allow progress to be made towards a peace agreement. It comes only a day after an agreement between Arafat and Abu Mazan, the newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, allowed for a cabinet to be named. Although this is a farce of democracy, foreign powers including Britain and, to some extent, the United States, seem ready to view these changes as steps towards the infamous “road map”, and are preparing for a new drive towards a peace agreement.

And of course, every time someone decides – mainly as a political move – to begin pushing for peace in the middle east, terrorism increases. The problem is that these groups will never accept peace under any circumstances, so they will continue to carry out terror attacks – the one thing sure to derail any peace process – in order to prevent negotiations from moving forward.

In the meantime, people keep dying.