I was watching the CBC News today (one of my daily rituals) and I realized something very important about how Canadian politicians and strategists use references to the President of the United States of America.

Years ago when the war in Iraq began under the whole propaganda of “War on Terrorists”, most Canadadians viewed the politics of the redneck President, George Bush, as less than favourable. In fact, the huge opposition towards Bush’s policies made a change in how Canadian political battles and debates were fought. Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of canada was often demonized with reference to their similarities with the Bush administration down South.

The Liberal Party, which is the main opposition to the Conservative Party, often used these types of ads to associate Stephen Harper with George Bush. These type of ads were used in the election before this, when the Liberal Party leader was Paul Martin.

That was the tone with which we referred to the leader of our Southern neighbours. The bad guy. The ignorant, simpleton redneck who is trigger happy and aggressive, and likes to act like a tough guy in public while knowing nothing about the economy. Simpliy put, Canadians were ashamed that our closest neighbours had elected that Texan to President, twice in a row.

Today on CBC, however, things were changed. In a political debate between Conservative and Liberal and NDP strategists, the new US President, Barack Obama, was mentioned, but in a totally different way. The Conservative strategist mentioned that the Canadian public now wanted to see a “non-partisan approach” to the economic problem. The non-partisan point of view is one of Obama’s guns in how he intends to lead the nation out of the economic crisis that they are in, and the Conservative strategist tried to caplitalize on it - by citing similarities of their policies to that of Barack Obama’s. When that was mentioned, the Liberal and NDP strategists gave out a sarcastic laughter, pointing out that the Liberal and NDP has been going towards that approach for months, while the Conservative party kept on feeding the nation lies about the current economic situation.

Bottom line is, all sides were trying to sell to the public that their policies are more in line with the new US President, Barack Obama. Using similarities to the US President as a selling point in political debates was something that Canadian politicians did not do for the past 8 years!

Looks like a lot of things have changed. I consider this international shift of viewpoint to be one of very significant nature, and something that the public and politicians both need to acknowledge carefully and fully. Barack Obama’s election really is a world-shifting event in the eyes of the public at the moment. What the results will be, and how much can be possibly done in 4 years to fix everything is a question that only Obama can answer for us. I hope the answer is a positive one. But all that speculation put aside, the fact that a new leader of the USA being praised and lifted up so much in Canadian politics signals a huge change of scenery, and the way Canada and the rest of the world looks at the USA as a nation.

Perhaps the USA will regain its dignity after all in the eyes of the world. We’ll see in a few years.

The whole Israel in the Middle East thing has been an interesting subject for me as I grew up. It’s a land of endless wars and conflicts, and issues stemming from there seem to affect the world at such large degrees, and it’s always been fascinating for me to dig through.

God Wanted Israel to be Created?

When I was young, I was subjected, at times, to Christian propaganda, unfortunately. Fortunately, I have grown to be able to logically discern information from propaganda, and truth from mythology and ideology. Let’s just say I’ve grown up to take the best part of religious teachings and apply only some of it to my more spiritual, logical, and realistic view of the world. Here’s how Christians see it, as many preachers and other hardcore Christians have tried to convince me of:

“The uprising of Israel as a Jewish nation has been long foretold in the Book of Revelations, and it is God’s will being carried out according to what the Bible says. This means that the end of ages is dawning closer and closer and we should rejoice in the creation of Israel.”

I don’t need to tell anybody who has brains that this is a big load of shit. The Balfour declaration of 1917 was what initially put the idea of a Jewish state on the political tables in Europe. Perhaps this was motivated through religious ideologies, or perhaps it had to do with the Rothchilds’ connection to Lord Balfour who declared it - I’m unsure of the motivation. Could be both, but based on what I read and intepreted, one thing is for certain, and that is the fact that Balfour was heavily in bed (non-literally) with the Zionists in Great Britain, who would have used many methods of “influence” to Lord Balfour.

Balfour and Rothchild

Palestine was a British Mandate at the time, and I believe this was due to a lack of leadership of the nation following some wars and instability. The British Mandate of Palestine was designated by many to be the new Jewish State (not all of it - just a small chunk of it along the Mediterranean).

After the Jewish people suffered quite an ordeal due to a certain asshole named Adolf Hitler and his possies, in 1948, after the Second World War was well wrapped up, a chunk of land was carved out of Palestine and was designated Israel, the new (and only) Jewish state. The Jews were finally no longer the immigrants and minorities all over Europe and North America. They had their country. All sounds good? Maybe to some.

On at least two different times in history, the British also offered a part of Uganda to the Zionists, but those attempts fell through due to many different reasons. Many Zionists were hell-bent on getting back what they considered the Holy Land, rather than just getting a good chunk of land that is fertile, inhabitable, with a decent climate (which Uganda was, and still is). Ah, yes. Religion and ideology jumps into the equation once again, and voila, we now have a US-backed, Pro-Western Jewish state, right in the middle of Middle East (no pun intended).

Gimme That!

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but if somebody came to my apartment and said “That part of the living room, and this small bedroom is now off limits to you. We’re giving it to these guys who don’t have a place to stay,” I’d be quite upset. Especially if it’s based on the fact that their religious booklet says that it is some Holy Room to them. Because for me, their religion means dick all. Different religious beliefs are the same for me as different preference in food. Just because I like sushi doesn’t mean I expect others to like it. Or, it’s like the Russian Hockey Leage. I don’t know any of those teams, so if I were to watch a game between 2 Russian hockey teams, I wouldn’t care which fans supported which team. There’s no logic behind which team is designated to be the winner or the loser, other than how the game goes that day, and which team has more expensive players. I only know that I am a Vancouver Canucks fan.

So. Palestine, which is obviously an Arab state, was forced to give up a piece of land for Israel to be established upon it, because they had a lapse in their government, and while they were merely a British Mandate (in other words, like a colony), they just had to lie there, face-down, and take it. No wonder they are upset about it, and so is the rest of the Arab world.

Let’s look at the events after the creation of Israel. Heavily backed by Western powers such as Great Britain and USA, Israel continues to exist, surrounded by enemy Arab nations. Yes, they are outnumbered, but they seem incredibly well equipped and armed with M16s and F-series fighter jets. Oh wait, what? The M16 is a standard US military issue weapon, and the F-14s and F16s are also US-made? So now, to make matters worse, we have Western involvement in this land, and the political issues become scathingly large, affecting the whole globe.

Why Palestine?

Apart from the fact that the hard-line Zionists wanted Palestine specifically so they can re-claim Jerusalem, there were some other factors. When the creation of Israel was being debated, and Palestine and Uganda were being contemplated as options, US President Truman heavily supported the Zionists’ movement to set up Israel in Palestine. Also, while all these negotiations were going on, Syria and Jordan had other motives to try and suppress the nation of Palestine, so they had secret pacts or understandings with the Jewisth and Western Leaders so support the creation of Israel. While most Arabs sought to prevent Israel from being created, these alterior motives stopped them from putting forth a unified front to protect their hegemony and independency… a move I’m sure they regret now.

Let’s go back to Truman and USA’s heavy support of the creation of Israel on Palestine’s lands. Up until then, there was no solid presence of pro-Western, pro-USA powers in the Middle East. But as industry was modernizing, the importance of securing oil was important. Also, in a post-war era USA, which got out of the Great Depression by means of entering the War, it was important that the USA be able to keep selling arms and munitions to allies. Creating a pro-USA nation in the Middle East was the perfect thing to do in order to achieve both. Of course there would be ongoing conflicts in that region, and it would give military and air base access to USA in the Middle East. It was perfect. See what I’m getting at? It was a politically motivated move to gain something for themselves. It wasn’t that Truman somehow supported the Zionist movement from his strong beliefs and sympathy for the Jewisth people. We all know how he handled the Korean War, and we can now see that trend in this move.

The Assailant and the Victim, and the Profiteering

The religiously motivated Zionists who saw nothing beyond the inception of Israel were obviously short-sighted. They did not see the potential (or more like certainty) of continued war and violence. The real victims, in my opinion, are the Jewish people and the Palestinians who live there right now. They need to live in constant awareness and fear of a rocket hitting their homes, or a bomb attack, or, in many times throughout history, the prospect of a full-scale war. It is no way to live, and I sympathize for their situations. The instigators of this entire trouble would be the zealous Zionists, and of course, the Americans who sought to take a piece of this action by putting a pro-Western country of their backing into the Middle East, and thus gaining access to air fields and military bases for their own operations, so close to the richest oil field in the world. The USA has profited more than anybody with this whole deal if you ask me. They sold endless supplies of weapons and arms to Israel, while the conflicts and wars went on in the region, making the Middle East a notorious region for constant battles and violence.

Israel - Justified to Exist?

Short answer from me is Yes, but only due to the fact that I can be very realistic. But I cannot blame the Palestinians for bombing Israel on a regular basis. Hamas, in the recent months, seem to be even more aggressive with their constant barrage of random rocket launches into Israeli territories. And unfortunately those are stone-age rockets, which sort of land anywhere in a broad area, which means that civilians are being hit, not military targets. It’s really sad. But considering the circumstances under which Palestine was forced to carve out a chunk of land for the Jewish people, there’s no wonder that Arabs in the region oppose the existence of Israel altogether. What else would you expect, if you have a sane mind? The Zionist belief is merely one belief, not a universal goal. Just like I have no right to convince another person that pepperoni pizza is still better than ham and pineapple, the Zionists, or the American lobbyists and former US Presient Truman, have no right to expect people of a different religion to accept their Zionism theory based on some biblical interpretation.

Then, beyond all logics and morals, why do I insist that Israel has the right to exist? They are people too, and they now have a home there. Just because the wrong decision was made 60 years ago doesn’t mean we can unto 60 years of settlement and growth of a nation and its people. I do not want to see Israel razed to the ground and its people killed or in exile, like some Arab extremists want to see. I want them to live. I want them to live in peace. This goes out to both Israelis and Palestinians.

What Now?

We can’t just lift the nation of Israel and put it somewhere else. Nor can we do the same with palestinians. Continuous war between them is not a favourable option (unless you are involved with the US weapon manufacturers, or own their stocks, etc.). We’ve established that the Palestinians’ anger and assaults have very reasonable ground, and we’ve also established that it was an unwise move for the Zionists to put Israel in Palestine (and an immoral move by the Americans to push for this move).

Quite frankly, it’s much easier analyzing the facts and history of how this happened. It’s much harder to actually try to come up with a solution to this. Why don’t I leave this up to my readers to comment on?

George Bush makes a surprise visit to Iraq, I suppose out of attempt to define his own legacy as he is about to leave his post, only to experience something so bizarre - shoes thrown at his face.

As I watched this delightful video and laughed, this was my train of thought.

1. Wow good reflexes (as he dodges the first one).
2. It would have been quite funny if the guy missed and hit the Iraqi PM instead. (as the journalist takes off another shoe and takes aim).
3. Too bad it didn’t hit Bush the second time either (as the second shoe is also dodged).
4. I wonder what size shoes he wore, and if they were steel toe? (as the security wrestles the guy down)
5. I’m hungry. I should go put something in the oven (as Bush is nervously smiling and asking people to calm down).
6. I wonder, how would I react if I found Narnia beyond the depths of my oven in my kitchen?
7. How come they never make those fantasy movies with an Asian protagonist?

But my point is that… it was a funny and delightful moment and it made my day.

Michael Kwan is looking for cases where we’ve done something charitable for those in need. Well, I have a charitable act that I do very often that helps many many sides of our society.

You see, I’m not the average North American - privileged from birth, full of empathy and sympathy, trying to be self-righteous by doing small insignificant deeds of good that only makes the doer feel good while it does not fix the problem. I’m a very realistic person who sees things for the truth rather than idealism. I don’t believe in basics or minimums that are guaranteed by default, and I believe in Darwinism. Even the right to survive is, technically and truthfully, not a guarantee. We have won it as a society, and we also need to sustain it as individuals.

When you decide to cross the street at night wearing a black jacket, you are gambling with your right to life. When you decide to go to war with Iraq, you are forcefully taking away the right to life from innocent Iraqi civilians. In an ideal world, everybody has the right to live. But who said these rights are guaranteed? I don’t understand how these standards somehow became a philosophy. These standards we set are merely artificial human attempts at achieving a higher goal, but really, there’s no law in physics that grants us any kind of rights whatsoever.

When you ditch out on a job and decide to shoot up on heroine, eventually you will lose your right to an income. When you lose right to an income, you lose your rights to food, shelter. You’ll also lose the right to heroine, since money will be scarce. Eventually you will lose rights to live. You will die on the streets. Unless. We encounter the idiots who decide to give petty change to these people, feed them in soup kitchens, so as to grant them the right to food and heroine that rightfully should be taken away from them. It only makes the problem worse.

Some people might be saying at this point, “In some cases, it’s not their fault. They have mental illnesses.” or something of the sort. Once again, going back to the very basics of physics - nothing is guaranteed. Unfortunately some are born without adequate ability to survive. If they have rich parents who are willing to lend them the right to carry on, great. If they found some other talent through which they can obtain the right to live, great (paralympians, for example). If not, who the hell says that we as society should guarantee them basic rights just because they’re human beings? It’s all man-made, and merely an opinion. It’s not a golden standard, unfortunately.

When a homeless person asks me for change, my response is “No. Get a job.” If you are incapable of getting a job, REGARDLESS of whose fault it is, then you lose rights to money, and in consequence, you lose your rights to food, shelter, and ultimately, survival.

You see, if you give these guys change, they’ll carry on for another day. Buy cheap food, and cheap drugs. That doesn’t solve the problem. The only thing it might do is make you feel like a nice smug person who is generous and all. But it doesn’t really help anything in the long run.

I’m a more charitable person than those donating soups and change to the drug-addicted homeless people in downtown and the eastside (I live in Vancouver by the way). Because I encourage them to learn how to fish, so they can find their own rights, rather than borrow rights from others on a daily basis. We as society, thanks to our ancestors, have created this magnificent world of opportunity and wealth. If you can’t grasp even a tiny bit of it, too bad. Darwinism says you will just perish away and nobody will remember you. It’s cold, it’s sad, but it’s the truth.

Just to make things clear - I donate for other charitable causes that involve childrens charities, as well as international charities for Africa and what not. Their economy and way of life has been raided by the influence of Western civilization, the global economy and the currency exchange system that enslaves some of the poorest nations. This is a fact I cannot change because I’m not that powerful. To offset the fact that the wealths I enjoy are trickled down wealths from the global economy that leeches from the poor 3rd world countries and piles it up in the hands of North Americans, I donate for those causes. I just don’t give a single fucking penny to homeless people in Vancouver.

Today, October 14th is the day of the Canadian Federal Elections. Please go and vote. It is a privilege, an honour, and a responsibility as a citizen of Canada to go vote in the elections to make sure your voice is heard.

Many of you are already aware that I am a Liberal Party supporter, and I support them mainly based on their foreign policies, as well as tax regulations. The Conservative Party has robbed us by reducing one tax and increasing another one. The Conservative Party is also too much in line with aggressive partisan politics of the Republican Party down south.

Many Canadians are supporting a vote that will get the Partisan Harper government out - meaning, they are supporting voters to vote for whichever candidate has a better chance of defeating the Conservative candidate in the riding.

www.voteforenvironment.ca is one of the most prominent websites that promote the anti-Conservative vote. Essentially, these people (and myself) feel that getting the Conservative Government out by any means is a better way to ensure Canada experiences a balanced growth in a peaceful and respectful manner.

But. My opinions are my opinions, and as a staunch supporter of true democracy, I invite you to vote for whoever you wish to vote. Better to vote than to not vote, honestly.