For those who've missed the sexual freak show
of the 1990s, a "transgendered" person is Sal on its way to becoming
Sally, or Patricia on its way to becoming Patrick. Foes once cringed when
the call went up "The Campbells Are Coming" or "The Black
Watch Will Charge." The hardened fighters under Slobodan Milosevic
will probably die -- of laughter -- when they learn the Canadians are coming,
complete with women and the transgendered. "Canada's armed forces
agreed to pay for sex-change operations after one of its soldiers requested
one and a military assessment concluded that changing gender would not
restrict the performance of military duties. Col. Scott Cameron, director
of medical services for the military, said that the cost of such operations,
including hormone treatments and psychiatric counseling, would be between
$30,600 and $6l,200 in U.S. currency." ( Pacific Sun, Marin County,
California, May 19, 1999)
Sino-US Relations
Circle The Bowl
C-FAR has long warned that nations ignore Red
Chinese military aspirations at their peril. When a bit of NATO's famous
"collateral damage" vapourized the Belgrade diplomatic compound,
Beijing went ballistic - so to speak. The value of a human life, all but
worthless in Tiananmen Square, had, in Belgrade, appreciated beyond all
reckoning. China's vehement denunciations, demonstrations and sanctions
(including withdrawing Hong Kong docking privileges to the 70 or so U.S.
warships that visit that port annually) seem a tad excessive, given the
fact that the fusillade of recriminations overshot NATO to land squarely
on the U.S. Typically, Beijing seizes on any distraction that offers itself
as the June 4 anniversary of Tiananmen nears. However, on May 7 (when the
compound was hit) Beijing would have been acutely aware that a congressional
committee investigating U.S. security breaches was about to publish a report
detailing decades of systematic Chinese "pilfering". By the time
the report was made public on May 25, chairman Chrisopher Cox (R), was
in no mood to mince words: "China has stolen classified information
on every deployed warhead in the U.S. ballistic missile arsenal. ... The
report said that Beijing had gained information that had allowed Chinese
scientists to leap dramatically forward from 1950s technology to, potentially,
being 'on a par' with some U.S. programmes. ... [Not to mention targetting
some U.S. cities in an apparent rapture of gratitude] ... Some in Congress
have likened the loss to the penetration, by spies working for Moscow,
of the U.S. atomic weapons program in the 1940s." (International Herald
Tribune, May 26, 1999) This habitual filching of secrets doesn't say much
for the adequacies of the average Marxist/Leninist polytechnic.
Die Weltwoche, 1998
Still petulant over the Belgrade accident, "China's
reaction to the Cox report was consistent with its policy of denying any
involvement in a variety of China-related scandals that have erupted in
the United States. China has denied any knowledge of a scandal involving
an alleged plot to funnel Chinese government funds to American political
candidates. It also has said it has not conducted any espionage operations
in the United States and has not stolen nuclear-weapons secrets."
(International Herald Tribune, May 26, 1999) While it appears that Beijing
doth protest too often; it has nevertheless correctly identified the West's
one great vulnerability, and, in a tactically brilliant masterstroke, launched
the pre-emptive race card.
"Chinese-Americans and Chinese citizens
living in the U.S. fear they will suffer from a wave of paranoia and discrimination,
following the accusations of espionage by China. ... To head off a backlash,
lawmakers including Democrat David Wu and Republican Tom Campbell had planned
on Thursday [May 27] to file legislation aimed at quelling discrimination.
During a hearing addressed by Mr. Cox of the House International Relations
Committee, Democrat Gary Ackerman expressed concern over the impact the
report will have on Chinese-Americans. He pointed to an estimate by Mr.
Cox that 80,000 Chinese on official U.S. visits will have 'collection requirements'
-- instructions to gather information licit or illicit, during their trip.
'Don't you realise what you're doing? A chill is going up and down the
spine of every Asian-American in this country. ... This kind of language
does a tremendous disservice to this community,' Mr. Ackerman said."
(South China Morning Post, May 27, 1999) Silly Mr. Cox, for valuing national
security above niceness. The message was picked up in Beijing, where the
New China News Agency translated it as: "Cox and his like ... have
managed to plunge every overseas Chinese in the United States into a state
of extreme nervousness and anxiety." (International Herald Tribune,
May 28, 1999) As if to reassure the American public that allegations of
illegal Chinese campaign contributions are just another "right-wing
conspiracy", Bill Clinton has chosen the occasion to recommend extending
China's "most favoured" nation trade status.
"In addition to the renewal of China's trade
status, Mr. Clinton favors admitting China to the World Trade Organization.
... Pat Buchanan, the conservative commentator, asserted that Mr. Clinton's
notification to Congress on Thursday of his intent to renew the trade privileges
represented 'a low point in American diplomacy.' Mr. Buchanan said that
the president had 'shown himself to be not only an incompetent steward
of America's national security interests but a derelict defender of her
national honor.'" (International Herald Tribune, June 5, 1999)
Feed Locusts, Not Your Own Kids
Multicult tells us all cultures are equal. For
year, we've argued that most grandiose foreign aid schemes are futile because
poverty is often caused by the beliefs and choices of those involved. Far
be it from us to say the heathen superstitions of many of the nominally
Christian Filipinos are wrong, but the following story suggests parts of
the Philippines may face famine because of locust infestation. Yet, the
people would rather suffer the locusts and hunger than kill the insect
pests and offend the earth spirits. It seems to make sense: let the locusts
eat your harvest so that the god will give you a good harvest.
"Locusts have ravaged about 5,000 hectares
of crops this year, but farmers in the central Philippines still refuse
to kill the pests. Farmers believe that the migratory insects are the pets
of engkantos, or earth spirits. 'They fear the [pet] owners will get back
at them," said Leonardo Badon, assistant agriculturist of central
Negros Oriental province. Farmers have resorted to the age-old practices
of chanting, praying and offering food to the spirits. Mr Badon's advice
that young locusts should be killed has been ignored. 'The farmers can
help a lot if only they will follow the methods we have suggested,' he
said. The infestation has spread quickly across the island province, causing
the provincial Government to declare a state of calamity in 10 towns. ...
The belief in engkantos persists to this day, even in urban Manila."
(South China Morning Post, May 21 1999)
The Plight of "Native
People" in Sri Lanka
Before we buy into yet another load of guilt
about how we've abused the "native people" -- who, actually,
may NOT have been here first -- and empty the national treasury in land
claims, compensation and "healing" money, to say nothing of native
discounts in sentencing, let's remember that all around the world there
are tensions when stone age cultures come into contact with more advanced.
Here's an example from Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
" Leaders of Sri Lanka's oldest inhabitants,
the indigenous Veddah tribe, fear their community will be extinct within
20 years. Once hunter-gatherers before the arrival of the Sinhalese and
Tamils, the Veddahs live in scattered communities across the island. The
Veddah chief of the tiny community at Pollebedde is delighted at the prospect
of performing a hunting dance for visitors. He unties his straggling black
hair, picks up his bow and arrow, and accompanied by his friend who carries
his axe, they leap and sing until they are hoarse. 'The problem is there
are no young people interested in acting out our rituals,' he said. 'We
are the last two in this village who know what needs to be done. No one
else, for example, understands the ceremonies to hunt or ward off evil
spirits. When we die, this will end.' The Veddahs traditionally hunted
monkeys, deer, boar and lizards in the forests around the island. As these
shrank and the pressure for land grew, the authorities relocated them into
villages. Others were moved because their land was turned into national
parks for wildlife and hunting was banned, although a few permits have
now been issued.
While the Government has agreed in theory to
return the land, it is a sensitive issue in a country where the rebel Tamil
Tigers are waging a war for an independent state for the minority Tamils.
The communities try to scrape a living working as farm hands or growing
beans and yams. In one house, more than 10 people sleep in a single room
on a concrete floor and no one has more than one change of clothing. There
is little clean drinking water, hardly any medical facilities and no government
aid. ... Said a grandmother: 'The children don't go to school because there
is no money even to give them breakfast in the morning, and if they are
not fed they will faint.' The grinding poverty leaves the older generation
little time to pass on to their children the Veddah songs, dances and even
the language. And their villages are filling up with families from the
majority Sinhalese community, making intermarriage common. The children
who do go to school learn only Sinhalese and nothing about their own culture.
'They have changed greatly in the years I have been coming here,' said
researcher Russell Kuruppu. 'They have become more Sinhalese.' Some Veddah
communities are turning their rarity to their advantage. Carloads of mainly
Sri Lankan tourists visit the village of Dambana each weekend to see the
Veddahs who live there. There is an exhibition of photographs, bows and
arrows and axes and the Veddahs will sing their songs and demonstrate their
skills. These Veddahs have been criticised for being 'show Veddahs' who
do not preserve the true culture. " (South China Morning Post, May
25 1999)
Death By Slow Taxation
When productivity was (briefly) an issue, Chretien
and prime ministerial hopeful, Paul Martin patted precocious Canadians
on the head: "How cute; they think they can understand!" Now,
very belatedly, a House of Commons finance committee warns: "Canada
has too great a reliance on taxes that discourage work and investment,
particularly personal income taxes." (Globe and Mail, June 9, 1999)
No one seems very inclined to explain why "Canada's tax rate is 47
percent higher than the average G-7 rate," [when, on a per capita
basis, Canada takes in twice as many economy building immigrants than any
other developed nation. As immigration escalated,] "the tax bill for
the average Canadian family increased by 139 percent (after inflation)
between 1961 and 1998. ... When asked to name the highest total tax a family
of four should pay, respondents across economic, ethnic, ideological and
age lines answer with surprising uniformity: 29 percent. ... The average
family of four pays 48.2 percent of their income in taxes. ... Canadians
with children living at home are especially dissatisfied: An incredible
100 percent of those with three or more children between 10 and 17 say
they pay too much." (Reader's Digest, [Gallup poll], June 1999)
Less Canadian By
The Day -- More Orwellian In Every Way
Extra padding on the walls for any mention of
the GST! Remember the little melodrama Sheila Copps played out on behalf
of overburdened taxpayers? (Her broken GST promise, her resignation, her
miraculous resurrection?) Strange as it may seem, the taxpayer is probably
better off when she's openly squandering money: "Canada's Chief Electoral
Officer stated that every by-election costs taxpayers approximately half
a million dollars." (The Waste Report, Vol 1, Issue 4) A few examples
of recent philanthropy from Ms. Copps' tragically mislabelled Department
of Heritage: "$1,000 to the Canadian Lawyers Association for International
Human Rights: to translate a report titled Building Public Support for
Self-Determination in the Western Sahara. ... $6,500 to writer, Gerry Atwell:
script development for The Limbo Dancer. ... $45,000 to the Somali Canadian
Counselling Association: to help in overcoming obstacles to full and meaningful
participation of Somalis in the Canadian electoral system. ... $7,520 to
Cool Hand Productions Inc: for post-production of the video How to be More
Chinese. ... [from the Canada Council] $55,000 of taxpayers' money to bankroll
a lesbian porno film titled: Bubbles Galore. ... [from the NFB] $40,526.67
for Stolen Moments, a film which combines the hidden aspects of lesbian
history and of contemporary lesbian life and culture featuring well-known
lesbians. ... $194,855.30 for Frank the Wrabbit. This film is about how
humans and rabbits formulate and justify beliefs." (The Waste Report,
June, 1999) And this passes for culture? Only in the lower intestine. Why
not clarify the process by which skunks and politicians formulate and justify
beliefs? That at least might be instructive.
Just Another PM
From Quebec
Suffering from terminal delusions of adequacy,
Jean Chretien lectured Northern Ireland: "'We have to learn around
the world that it is possible to live in a society with different types
of people, different religions, different colours and different languages.'
... [Even so, he could not help but betray his prime ministerial Quebecentrism]
'Me too, I wish that the French had won the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.'"
(Globe and Mail, June 14, 1999) Then it was on to the Republic, to breathe
in the unfamiliar air of a booming economy. Called the new Silicon Valley,
Eire's phenomenal growth in brain-based industries has been attributed
to a highly cohesive population as much as to intelligent management. "Low
taxes have spurred economic growth and created jobs, Prime Minister Bertie
Ahern boasted yesterday to a defensive Jean Chretien. ... Ireland has a
non-resident tax rate of about 10%." (Toronto Sun, June 15, 1999)
Compare the 1997 figures: "GDP—real growth rate: Canada, 3.5%; Ireland,
6% ... Industrial production growth rate: Canada, 1.7%; Ireland, 10.1%."
(CIA World Factbook, 1998) Forever the statesman, when Chretien later visited
a pub, "the PM's orchestrated appearance prompted some tipsy folks
in the smoke-filled, beer-stained hall to yell: 'Buy a round Mr. Prime
Minister!' He pretended he didn't hear." (Toronto Sun, June 15, 1999)
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