C-FAR #333 March, 1999
Taxpayers $tiffed Again
The head of the United Nations Children's Fund
is not pleased: "millions of children will leave the 20th century
without the most basic standards of health and education promised by world
leaders in 1990. ... Bilateral aid is ... down 24 per cent for countries
where women have an average of five children or more. ... India alone needs
at least $1-billion (U.S.) of new money in the next five years to ensure
all children receive a basic education." (Globe and Mail, February
23, 1999) Would it be unfeeling to ask why women in starving countries
continue to have five or more children? Would it be uncaring to enquire
how India intends to finance its nuclear arsenal over the next five years?
Last year, in an ecstasy of gratitude, India's Minister of science and
technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, "told a science seminar in New Delhi:
'It is the arrival of some Western economic aid which brought AIDS to India.'
... The former head of a state-run medical research body created controversy
several years ago for suggesting that AIDS was a Western import and demanding
mandatory AIDS tests for all overseas visitors." (South China Morning
Post, April 22, 1998) Meanwhile, Sam Rainsy, a leading Cambodian opposition
leader "has lashed out at countries the 'blindly' donate money to
his country. ... 'Something is really wrong with Cambodia, and I am surprised
to see bureaucrats ... don't realise that Cambodia is a sinkhole for government
assistance.' ... He said the millions of dollars in aid given to Cambodia
had not helped the country, but instead has contributed to deeper poverty
by encouraging corruption and hindering reforms. ... 'The more money you
give to Cambodia ... the poorer the country becomes,' he added." (South
China Morning Post, February 23, 1999) Despite this, the only G7 nation
milking its taxpayers in order to increase aid is -- you guessed it. "Ottawa
will add $237-million to foreign aid this fiscal year and another $50-million
next year [bringing Canada's total to about $1.96-billion] (Globe and Mail,
February 18, 1999) "Since 1989, Canada has forgiven $1.2-billion (more
than half) the debt owed by the poorest countries. This year, the federal
government plans even more. ... A Finance official says Canada is not likely
to cancel all the debt owed by each poor country. Any policy is likely
to be forgiving of about 80%-90% of the debt. ... 'The [remaining] debt
they have to pay us gives us some leverage to educate them to the world
of financial responsibility." (National Post, February 16, 1999) "Financial
responsibility"? Wouldn't it be tidier to simply shred the stuff?
Not all your money is being swept overseas. While Canadian slaves rejoice
in their miserly dollar-a-day "tax rebate"; once Nunavut bursts
onto the April Fool's Day stage, another $540-million a year will allow
25,000 people to play the aid game right here at home.
Putting Canada First: Auschwitz
and Jordan
From the beginning, C-FAR has tried to offer
a moral approach, a direction, to politics. Instead of staggering from
one special interest group demand to the next, as most of our politicians
do, we have consistently advocated an approach that would guide decision
making: Put Canada and Canadians first! Two recent events were spectacular
examples of the failure to do this. First came Prime Minister Jean Chretien's
visit to Auschwitz during a visit to Poland. There was Canada's Prime Minister
with a Jewish yarmulke (skull cap) on -- head of the same government whose
protocol department banned the mention of Christ at a ceremony at Peggy's
Cove. In front of television cameras and swarms of media, Chretien looked
awkward as Mordechai Ronen, father of Moshe Ronen, head of the Canadian
Jewish Congress, wearing a prayer shawl, waved his arms, wailed and emoted
as he said prayers for the dead. Ronen senior, intoned, "I made it.
I made it. I'm alive. I'm alive." (Toronto Star, January 25, 1999)
Ronen had been 11 year old when sent to Auschwitz. Apparently, as he tells
the story, the wily youth had managed to outsmart the Germans by hiding
in a latrine each time they came to take people off for execution. Poles
who also suffered serious losses at Auschwitz were not invited. Chretien's
office said it was a private visit. Odd, that a "private" visit
would involve a battalion of media. The National Post went so far as to
remind disgruntled Poles that not all sufferings were equal. After all,
no one had sought to exterminate them merely for being Poles. This tidbit
of comfort must have sent the joyous Poles off doing a polka of delight,
knowing that their dead had been killed for reasons other than their ethnicity.
The entire event was utterly without dignity. Why would a Canadian prime
minister choose to act as a backdrop for one faction's grief, however deeply
or sincerely felt? The exclusion of the Poles immediately shows the divisiveness
of minority-based politics. Chretien had a perfectly good reason to visit
Poland to discuss trade, cultural exchanges, or closer co-operation. To
visit Auschwitz to promote one minority faction's agenda was unseemly and
not in the interests of all Canadians.
In contrast, Chretien was one of the few major
world leaders, and the only one among the G-7, to miss the funeral of King
Hussein of Jordan, February 7. Canada preens itself on being a middle power,
able to rub shoulders with the big boys. Part of that status means being
seen on important occasions. King Hussein, for nearly half a century, had
been a key figure in the tinderbox Middle East. His funeral was a command
performance. Even the decrepit Boris Yeltsin, held together, said one wag,
with vodka and bailing wire, managed to drag himself from his sick bed
to attend. But not le 'tit Gars de Shawinigan. Hussein's death was imminent.
Chretien, it seemed, was more interested in snowboarding -- this pensioner
turned ski-bunny -- than in fulfilling his obligations. He tried to fob
off the blame on the Canadian military for not being able to get to the
funeral on time. Chretien, had he been putting Canada first, would have
cut short his vacation -- heck, he'd just gotten back from Auschwitz and
other points in Europe -- and returned to Ottawa to stand by for the trip
to Jordan. Presumably, the inconsiderate Hashemite king should have gone
to Whistler to die so as not to inconvenience Chretien. Toronto Star (February
10, 1999) columnist Claire Hoy observed: "Chretien's selfish absence
is not only an opportunity squandered, it's an insult to a great king and
an international embarrassment for Canada. ... As Atif Kuburski, president
of the National Council of Arab-Canada Relations told a journalist, 'It
won't go unnoticed that Canada is one of the few nations not represented
by a national leader.'"
Ni$ga'a Treaty
"'The true cost of the landmark Nisga'a
treaty to the federal and B.C. governments could be as high as $1.3-billion.
... The estimate by John Richardson, a Vancouver economist and financial
consultant, is nearly triple the $485-million both governments have said
the treaty will cost. ... Suggesting government negotiators had deliberately
undervalued treaty costs, [Reformer, John] Cummins, MP for Delta-South
Richmond, said: 'That sort of treachery is beyond belief and perception.'"
(Globe and Mail, February 11, 1999) Hey Buddy! We're Canadians. Give us
a little credit; there is absolutely no treachery beyond belief or perception.
Control the Rats & Stop the
Famine
Ever since C-FAR co-founders Paul Fromm and James
P. Hull wrote the book Down The Drain: A Critical Re-examination of Canadian
Foreign Aid (available for $6 from C-FAR), we have argued that much Third
World poverty is the result of the misuse or misallocation of their own
resources. Rats are sacred to many Hindus and, for this reason, the wretched
rodents are often allowed to run wild and destroy huge quantities of food.
Foreign aid won't help a population that refuses to control these voracious
rodents. Thus, the following item rates as a good news story, where locals
help save their own food supply without the assistance of foreign aid.
"Villagers in the northeastern state of
Mizoram have killed tens of thousands of rats, incited by a reward of a
rupee for every rodent tail. The state Government is offering the incentive
to stave off famine caused by destruction of crops by the rising rat population.
It set up the high-level Mizoram State Rodent Control Committee in September
headed by the Chief Secretary. 'We have already received 80,000 tails,'
the committee's vice-chairman, Chotku Rokhuma, told the Statesman. Mr Rokhuma
said rats were responsible for the last famine in 1959, which claimed thousands
of lives in the backward state. ... 'The committee has received proof that
more than 80,000 rats have been killed in recent months,' Mr Rokhuma said.
... He said the monetary incentive had motivated people to keep awake at
night and kill rats when they came out of their burrows. Following in Mizoram's
footsteps, the neighbouring states of Assam and Manipur have also announced
financial incentives to curb the rat menace." (South China Morning
Post. February 24 1999)
Slavery: Stop White Guilt
Sorry, we missed Black History Month -- we were
too busy detailing assaults on European people. Nevertheless, to show we're
not completely politically incorrect, here's our contribution. One of the
tools used to extort undeserved concessions -- affirmative action/employment
equity -- from the Majority in both Canada and the U.S. is ceaseless references
to the institution of slavery. From programmes like Roots to endless docudramas,
the history of Black slavery is rehearsed and the argument advanced that
Blacks today, 135 years after the abolition of slavery in the U.S., are
entitled to special treatment and special consideration for criminal behaviour
or family breakdown. The reality is that there were White slaves. Even
less well known is that there were Black slave owners. The guilt must melt
away and people must live in the present and be accountable for their own
actions.
There is an article in the Feb./Mar. 1993 issue
of American Heritage, Vol. 441, that should be incorporated into all Black
History curricula. It is entitled "Selling Poor Steven". It begins
in the 1640's with the story of John Casor who was brought from Africa
to America where he toiled as a servant for a Virginia landowner. In 1654,
Casor filed a complaint in Northampton County Court, claiming that his
master, Anthony Johnson, had unjustly extended the terms of his indenture
with the intention of keeping Casor for life as a slave for life. Johnson,
insisting he knew nothing of any indenture, fought hard to retain what
he regarded as his property. After much wrangling, on March 8th, 1665,
the court ruled that "the said Jno Casor Negro shall forthwith bee
returned to the service of his master Anthony Johnson," consigning
him to a lifetime of bondage. Given the vulnerable legal status of servants
-- black and white -- in Colonial America, the decision was not surprising.
But the documents reveal one additional fact of interest: Anthony Johnson,
like his chattel, John Casor, was black. He had come to the colony as an
indentured servant, and served his indenture and was now a prosperous plantation
owner. He is also the father of American slavery. The story goes on for
6 pages of very interesting reading -- how free black women owned their
husbands, cases of free black parents selling their children into slavery,
and so forth. The official US Census of 1830 revealed that 3,775 free Negroes
owned 12,760 Negro slaves. What justification can our educators offer for
withholding this remarkable bit of black history.
Girls for Sale: North Korean Sellers;
Chinese Buyers
One of the greatest curses holding back the West
is phoney guilt. When it comes to man's inhumanity to man, we need look
no further than the horrors of Stalinist North Korea and other Asian vultures
only too happy to exploit the wretched situation. So, no more guilt!
"Girls are being sold to Chinese as brides
so families can eat. On Dec. 30, the mother of Han Jin O and Han Eu No
was arrested as she tried to sneak back into North Korea with a sack of
rice on her back and her children by her side. The police let the teenage
girls go but detained the mother. The next day, North Korean police came
to the family's house in the northern city of Hyesan and demanded a $125
bribe -- a fortune for poor North Koreans -- to release the woman from
one of North Korea's labor camps, the girls said. With a father so malnourished
that he is unable to work, and with no savings, the family had no way to
get her out of detention, they said. Until a gut-wrenching solution was
found. A North Korean businessman with contacts in China promised to raise
the money. His price? The girls. The girls said he told their father that
there were many men in China who needed wives. ... 'I was willing to be
a bride so my mother could be free,' said Han Jin O, an extremely thin
15-year-old who looks barely 12. 'I wasn't going to let them sell my sister.'
Han Eu No is 13. The Han sisters are part of a river of girls and women
that is flowing out of North Korea as the isolated Communist country stumbles
further toward famine and self-destruction. As many as 2 million people
are feared to have perished in North Korea since food shortages swept the
country in the mid-1990s, and refugees and aid officials on the border
paint a picture of a society in desperate straits. Malnutrition and hunger
are the norm, the all-consuming search for the next meal the obsession.
Their countrymen, therefore, are turning the women and girls of North Korea
into chattel to be traded for food and money. ... An increasing number
of young women, many in their early teens, are being smuggled out and sold
to Chinese farmers and labourers from across the country who have trouble
finding wives. Other women and girls are sold to karaoke halls and brothels,
which line the grimy streets of small cities in northeastern China. But
most are sold to single men from villages that many young Chinese women
have abandoned for what they see as the brighter vistas of bigger cities.
The reason, they said, is that North Koreans already have cannibalized
a large portion of their factories and clear-cut a large part of their
forests to trade to China for grain. 'They need other things to trade,'
a South Korean aid worker said, 'so they are trading their girls.' Chinese
smugglers here, engaged in moving everything from spare parts to cars and
women from North Korea to China, corroborated this view. 'They don't have
anything else,' said one of the [flesh smugglers], referring to his North
Korean partners. 'We've cleaned out the mine and the chicken farm,' he
said, speaking of what had been Musan's two biggest industries. 'Now we
are taking their pretty girls.' A person involved in the trade in Yanji,
a regional centre, said the price for a 'North Korean miss' ranged from
$800 to $1,150, depending on her age, looks and health. Health was very
important, said, because many of the girls suffer from malnutrition."
(International Herald Tribune, February 13, 1999)
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