This morning, at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, Long Island, crowds waiting to take advantage of a pre-Christmas sale broke down the doors to the store and trampled an employee to death. According to reports, while the 34-year-old man was stepped on and around while struggling to breathe, none of those entering the store attempted to assist him. Even as emergency responders were working to save the man’s life after the store had been closed because of the incident, those that had stormed the store largely streamed passed unconcerned.

My eyes slowly open. I sleep with the curtains pushed back, so am blinded briefly. In that instance, as I lay in bed new to another day, people around the world are being killed violently.

What has transpired in Mumbai is a representation of the worst of what we as a species are capable of, but it is by no means the only example of our predilection for death. We live in a world in which more has been done to further the arts of destruction than creation. It has become our great work, our calling card, the one constant employed by terrorists and governments alike. The majority of the planet fears death, so possessing the ability to deliver it has become the greatest undertaking in human history. Its perfection has many faces, from the mushroom cloud to the seizing of hotels in a major city. From carpet bombing to suicide bombing.

As an advocate of peace I feel peace too great a threat to the status quo to ever become a reality. Peace does not further agendas, nor does it possess the power to threaten. Peace is simply the unfortunate lesson learned when the fullness of our inherent aggression has been spent.

Those responsible for what has occurred in India are to be utterly condemned. But to condemn them also requires that we condemn every facet of the aggressive mechanism that we have allow to continue that cements the promotion of the deliverance of death as a tactic with which to intimidate, depress, and dominate. For we are all culpable in helping maintain that reality, even if we have never personally fired a shot.

We are the sons and daughters of a terrible legacy, one that has gone unburdened throughout the course of our tenure on this planet. We are children of murder, the anointed offspring of death from above and search and destroy.

There will come a time when this planet will no longer have any use for us. Perhaps, when all is said and done, that is peace. And in saying as much, one can only hope that nature shows us that no matter how skilled we have become at destroying one another, she possesses the ultimate solution to the problem that is mankind. For despite all of our hypocritical beliefs with regards to the use of dominance to secure peace, it seems to me that its full measure can only be achieved when we are no longer.

That is the reality that we have created for ourselves, and one that, in the end, we will ultimately have to account for. The world is old, she can be patient. We are but the blink of an eye to her and millions of her other guests that have lived in harmony with her long before we assumed this mantle of superiority. They, nor she, will mourn our passing. For with it will come peace, even if those we consider too unintelligent to comprehend it ultimately inherit what we could never brave to aspire to.

The Iraqi Parliament has (somewhat) backed the SOFA deal, though there is a very important caveat – that a referendum be held in the middle of 2009 as to whether the agreement should be adopted. If that referendum produces negative results, US forces will be forced to leave the country by as early as 2010.

Under the legislation passed today, US forces would begin to withdraw in 2009, with all of them scheduled to leave by the end of 2011, though there is still the issue of permanent US bases in Iraq to be addressed.

I employed the term ‘somewhat’ in parenthesis above because only 198 of the Parliament’s 275 members were present at the vote – which raises some questions as to where the remaining 77 members were. Of those present, 149 voted in favour.

With regards to permanent military bases, even if the land they occupy is leased, it’s important to remember that the United States currently has reciprocal operating agreements with more than 80 countries worldwide, many of which have been the focus of covert operations over the last century. Suspect examples include (even if the status has since been altered, such as in the case of Venezuela)…

Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile , Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

At long last the Pivot Legal Society has released its report on private security in Vancouver entitled Security Before Justice: A study of the impacts of private security on homelessness and under-housed Vancouver residents (.pdf). The report was authored by David Eby, Darice Bennet, John Richardson, and Kevin Tilley, who, along with everyone else involved, have to be commended for bringing this crucial issue to light.

Speaking with David on the phone this morning we somberly reminisced about the fact that it seems a lifetime ago since we first talked about this issue. At the time I was aware that Pivot was going to be writing the report and have waited with great anticipation for the results. The product of their labours is, by no means, a disappointment, striking at the heart of one of the most overlooked injustices in this city, one that should concern every resident of Vancouver if they believe in equality, the law, and the Charter.

A few very key points from the report’s Executive Summary include…

“Private security guards routinely overstep the bounds of their authority on public property. This includes guards asking or otherwise compelling people to move along when they have no legal authority to do so.

Private security guards are controlling access to space (on both public and mass private property) in ways that are not in keeping with principles of equality and fairness. This includes issuing informal bans from certain buildings, streets or neighbourhoods and the use of profiling, where people are treated differently depending upon their appearance. Profiling results in the continued harassment of homeless and visibly poor people, who are disproportionately Aboriginal and/or may suffer from a mental or physical disability including drug addiction.

Private security guards use force illegally. Both survey respondents and focus group participants claimed that guards are using force and threats of violence against homeless and other marginalized people on a routine basis.

There is little accountability when private security guards overstep their authority. People in the Downtown Eastside are not generally aware of their rights in relation to security guards, or how to complain about security guards’ actions. Only 39 of 154 survey respondents reported that they were
aware of the process for making a complaint against a security guard.”

My passion regarding this issue began a year and a half ago when I intervened in an incident involving an elderly women and two security guards that were trying to remove her from in front of a business on Water Street. One of the guards had the woman by the arm and was attempting to move her further down the sidewalk. Turning to the guard I told him that his action technically constituted assault and that he had absolutely no right to be touching the women, let alone asking her to leave the area. Both guards responded with aggressive language, telling me to go fuck myself and mind my own business. My response was to produce my phone, look at them, and ask them if they’d like me to call the police so that they could provide them the definition of assault, after which the one guard unhanded the women. She stood there for a moment unsure what to do, so I asked her to walk with me. The guards turned and went up Water Street in the other direction. While walking with her towards Carroll Street she told me that she had been harassed by guards in the past and even ushered into a back alley where they told her “people like her belonged”. There was no question that she suffered from mental illness, which only enraged me further, because in our society there is no excuse for a women in her 60’s that obviously needs long-term care to be on the streets. None.

Later that day I did a little digging and found out that the company was contracted by the Gastown Business Improvement Society.

From Pivot’s report…

“Andrew, a former Paladin Security licensed contract security guard, approached Pivot legal Society in the spring of 2007.

Andrew’s company was contracted to provide security patrols by the Gastown Business Improvement Society. He explained that he had recently quit his job because he felt that he was being asked to violate the rights of poor people.

In a sworn statement, the former security guard described being instructed to engage in “profiling” activities (monitoring the movements of people who looked homeless, poor or drug addicted). He also stated he was asked to remove profiled people from a busy tourist strip and relocate them to adjacent areas outside of the tourist zone. He recalled being asked to chase off one severely disabled panhandler because business owners considered the wheelchair-bound woman, who had lost an arm and a leg, too disruptive.

Andrew stated that his company routinely banned certain people from the Gastown Business Improvement Area, although, to his knowledge, there were no court orders in place restricting the movements of these citizens. He was asked to enforce these private bans and to use physical force in the course of his duties. Andrew also raised concerns about incident reports being altered and about information-sharing practices between his company
and the public police.”

Things down here are a world removed from Robson Street and Yaletown despite the fact that they’re only a five to ten minute car ride away. Like it or not, economic persecution is no different than any other form of persecution, and to think that it is tolerated in this city, even defended, disgusts me.

But you know, I’m a hypocrite, and I would be remiss not to claim myself one. Because no matter my views on the subject, I live in one of the ‘reclaimed’ buildings down here that represents the greed driven gentrification of the Lower Eastside. And that’s one of the main reasons that I’m moving, because I simply cannot live with that anymore.

I urge you to read the report, which is linked at the top of this entry, and to make your voice heard regarding this issue.

Just because something is animated is doesn’t automatically mean that it’s for kids. Fritz The Cat is certainly not material for youths, neither is Heavy Metal or American Pop. As far as I am concerned, South park fits into that category – it is not a show meant for young viewers.

It is easy enough in this day and age to blame shows such as South Park for the actions of kids, especially when those actions lead to violence, but the truth is that parents are the ones at fault for allowing their children access to it, or, at the very least, not taking a serious role in monitoring what their kids are being exposed to. If parents see no problem with their kids watching South Park then it is their responsibility to put its content into context for them so that there is no confusion. Equally, it is also a parent’s responsibility to determine if their child grasps their explanation of the content of the show and, if they don’t, to ensure that they are not exposed to it until such a time that they do understand its humour.

If you are a fan of the series, and have followed its development over the last twelve years, then you’re aware that it has taken very risqué shots at everything from religion to race, stardom to war. That said, its satirical commentary is not something that can be dismissed as petty because of the “who killed Kenny” phenomenon that first swept North America when the show first premiered. The show has, since those early seasons, grown into something entirely different – a pop culture watchdog of sorts that isn’t afraid to confront issues that most will not. For that, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have to be given credit.

My reason for mentioning this has to do with a Facebook page run by a 14-year-old boy on Vancouver Island that promoted November 20th as “National Kick A Ginger Day”. The page resulted in widespread assaults on children with red hair who were confronted and kicked by fellow students repeatedly without warning. One student in Nanaimo, BC, was kicked an estimated 80 times throughout the day.

The episode of South Park that influenced this idiotic scheme, entitled “Ginger Kids”, is about Eric Cartman being taught a lesson by Stan and Kyle after giving a presentation during show and tell about what he refers to as “Ginger Kids”. During the presentation Cartman claims that Ginger Kids don’t have souls, can’t walk in the daylight, and are inherently evil. That night, to make a point, Stan and Kyle sneak into Cartman’s bedroom, dye his hair red, and use Henna to give him freckles. This all leads to Cartman hypocritically embarking on a twisted campaign to see “Gingers” rule the world. At the finale of the episode, just as Cartman’s “Ginger Kid” followers are set to dispose of “non-Gingers” by dumping them into lava, he’s told about the prank and has to quickly go about convincing them not to go through with his master plan. Thus, while the very beginning of the episode singles “Ginger Kids” out, the majority of it is about Cartman, who believes that he has become a “Ginger Kid”, attempting to persecute everyone who isn’t one – a theme that is actually prevalent in numerous episodes in which the character of Cartman is used as a contradictory or subversive device.

That said, the fact that a Facebook group was established to promote the kicking of “Ginger Kids” only speaks to how many youths completely misconstrued the actual intent of the episode itself. In short, it was completely over their heads.

Ultimately, are Matt Stone and Trey Parker responsible for the actions of moronic kids? Absolutely not. The moronic kids of moronic or disassociated parents are. End of story.

No matter how well I write it, I cannot even begin to come close to the perspective provided by someone like Robert Fisk, who has been covering the greater Middle East for The Independent since I was six or seven years old. With regards to Afghanistan, Fisk’s recent piece entitled Kabul 30 years ago, and Kabul today. Have we learned nothing? is a must read, but it is how he begins it that is truly brilliant…

“I sit on the rooftop of the old Central Hotel – pharaonic-decorated elevator, unspeakable apple juice, sublime green tea, and armed Tajik guards at the front door – and look out across the smoky red of the Kabul evening. The Bala Hissar fort glows in the dusk, massive portals, the great keep to which the British army should have moved its men in 1841. Instead, they felt the king should live there and humbly built a cantonment on the undefended plain, thus leading to a “signal catastrophe”.

Like automated birds, the kites swoop over the rooftops. Yes, the kite-runners of Kabul, minus Hollywood. At night, the thump of American Sikorsky helicopters and the whisper of high-altitude F-18s invade my room. The United States of America is settling George Bush’s scores with the “terrorists” trying to overthrow Hamid Karzai’s corrupt government.

Now rewind almost 29 years, and I am on the balcony of the Intercontinental Hotel on the other side of this great, cold, fuggy city. Impeccable staff, frozen Polish beer in the bar, secret policemen in the front lobby, Russian troops parked in the forecourt. The Bala Hissar fort glimmers through the smoke. The kites – green seems a favourite colour – move beyond the trees. At night, the thump of Hind choppers and the whisper of high-altitude MiGs invade my room. The Soviet Union is settling Leonid Brezhnev’s scores with the “terrorists” trying to overthrow Barbrak Karmal’s corrupt government.

Thirty miles north, all those years ago, a Soviet general told us of the imminent victory over the “terrorists” in the mountains, imperialist “remnants” – the phrase Kabul communist radio always used – who were being supported by America and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Fast forward to 2001 – just seven years ago – and an American general told us of the imminent victory over the “terrorists” in the mountains, the all but conquered Taliban who were being supported by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Russian was pontificating at the big Soviet airbase at Bagram. The American general was pontificating at the big US airbase at Bagram.

This is not déjà-vu. This is déjà double-vu. And it gets worse.”

Until watching the latest episode of South Park tonight I had no idea what ‘High School Musical’ even was. The following picture says it all…

Can’t sleep, not at night anyway. During the day – no problem. In fact, that’s what I did today – all day. Went to sleep finally at almost 6am, got up at 10am, went back to sleep at noon. Woke up at 5:30pm.

Watched that Wall-e movie last night. You know what’s genius about it? The fact that almost nothing is said for the first half of the film. Those people at Pixar have got their shit together, I’ll give them that.

I also watched The Foot Fist Way, which I highly recommend.

I haven’t stooped to renting Zombie Strippers from the iTunes store, but I’m inches away.

That’s right, British Columbia, make that five in a row. I think that makes us a dynasty. We can retire numbers in lofty ceremonies, and every British Columbian will get to have the cup at their home for a day.

You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you.

For the fifth straight year in a row, this Province has the distinction of having the highest child poverty rate in the country. Twenty-two percent of children in BC live in poverty, which is six percent higher than the national average. That’s 181,000 kids.

Oh Olympiad, your billions would have done so much good. Of course, with the recent loss of major sponsors, you stand to flush more kids down the poverty toilet. I swear by all that is good in this world that during the games it had damn well better rain golden snowflakes, because if they turn into the financial debacle that many are beginning to believe they will, someone’s going to have to answer for it.

I have no idea why new comments aren’t showing up.

Updated: I see why now. I changed the time of the site to reflect daylight savings and every comment made before that is now “in the future”, which means that they’ll start to show up in the last post in proper time once it gets past the last time of the last comment before I changed the time.

If that made any sense.

THE WORLD WILL BEGIN AGAIN AT 7:11 PST.

The world is now back to normal. You are instructed to cease panicking immediately.