Thursday 23 October 2014

Patriots Only...All Others Please Leave!

I am a patriot. I love Canada unreservedly, always have, always will and I'd never consider living elsewhere. Even when I'm not pleased with some aspect of governance or critical of a Canadian custom, my patriotism never wavers. Canada is, without question, the best place in the world to live. And so, when that way of life is in any way interrupted or threatened, I get agitated...extremely disturbed. I purposely wrote this blog entry as events in our nation's capital unfolded on October 22nd and I am feeling emotional about my country. That emotion includes a dreadful sadness for the victim and for our nation but there is also anger bordering on rage that any of our so-called 'countrymen' would even consider expressing opposition to what we cherish in such a hideous and heinous way. Countrymen they may be...patriots, they are not.

I wrote recently that I believed the ISIS threat was not about a few crazy people half a world away but, rather, a glimpse of what World War III  might look like. I worried then and worry now about the born Canadians, indoctrinated far away or right here at home and eager to cause unrest, even havoc. ISIS and its' ideology are foreign on all levels but can and will do incredible damage in its' stated objective of bringing radical Islam to the world. We have all read the threats and exhortations to kill at random in a list of coalition countries including Canada. When I ask the question "do you believe me yet?", I am not being sarcastic or saying I told you so. Our government warned us of what could happen. Now, I must question why increased precautions were not taken within our own seat of government on Parliament Hill in light of an announced increased threat level.

Canada is indeed under threat. That means that, while shocked, we ought not to be surprised when we find ourselves under attack. That begs another question, one I asked on this blog a few short weeks ago. It pertained to why we are part of a coalition that believes we actually will eliminate the ISIS threat by lobbing a few rockets and bombs at ground targets from the air. In two blog posts, I stated that we should be taking the threats very seriously and that we will need boots on the ground. I said that we, ultimately, WILL put boots on the ground. The only question now is what "ultimately" means. 

Here is an excerpt from my initial plea to take ISIS seriously...

"ISIS is a growing organization and it is made up of 'in-situ' Muslim fanatics PLUS tens of thousands of the disaffected and crazy from all over the world, Canadians included. They are trained to kill and to show no mercy in using techniques designed to shock and revolt normal human beings...I draw this distinction because it is my belief that our views of the world are completely at odds and are non-negotiable. We see equality and human rights as a basic concept and they do not. No god figure in the history of human religious practice has ever called for the eradication of every non-believer the world over and, by the way, that includes the God of Islam, Allah. To suggest otherwise is to misinterpret, twisting words in order to make them fit with one's own agenda.

These people are just plain out of their minds, however, they should never be dismissed. Rather, they need to be dispatched. I have never proposed violent behaviour as justifiable in dealing with any group or person anywhere. In this case, however, ISIS needs to be totally eradicated -- eliminated from the planet, never to be be heard from again. If we do nothing and just watch, this scourge will surely come to us."


Look at that last line and think about it. I hadn't thought, a few short weeks ago, that my words would become so rapidly prophetic. The incipient edge of a cancer is growing here and it must be eliminated now. I argued, and many disagreed, that the best method would be the direct one...go get them. It is understandable that political will has been less than enthusiastic on our part and on the parts of our coalition partners to date. Perhaps that will now change. More recently I wrote...

"...in many endeavours, the operative adage must be 'in for a penny, in for a pound'. In other words, if we have 100 advisors in Iraq and/or Syria on the ISIS project, they are all potential victims. And if we are there with potential victims (as are our partners), couldn't we put enough manpower and materiel on the line to ensure that we win the day and win for all time? That means that I believe in boots on the ground being essential. Could we suffer losses? Yes...indeed, we would. But here's another (and more populist) adage 'pay me now or pay me later'. I will say, without hesitation, that Canada will, at some point, put boots on the ground as will the United States and Great Britain."


In that old catch-phrase about paying now or paying later, I'd not have predicted that "later" would be a matter of weeks. I want my Canada, my safe haven, to remain just that way. In the past week, our security has been shaken and nowhere more so than our own Parliament. I believe we can spare no effort, spare no expense, and waste no time in taking this battle to where it must be fought. And we cannot allow Canadian-born malcontents to import hatred and violence because they hate their own birthplace and way of life so much that they would harm other Canadians. Note that I did not refer to them as "fellow Canadians"? Let them get out of Canada now and stay away forever. Fellow patriots, friends from other lands, can we please get on with this job? Canada Strong!

Peter

Friday 17 October 2014

Panic Scares Me More Than Ebola

I am not terrified of Ebola. What does disturb me is the insanity of those who are! They are mysophobic, believing this is about preserving their very lives and the lives of their loved ones in what they view as a clear and present danger when it is nothing of the sort. It also concerns me that we now have some insight into what could actually happen if there were a situation where there might legitimately be a threat. Basically, it appears we might be facing something like neighbor-upon-neighbor...every man for himself. I do not like that exposed and unseemly edge of our otherwise polished veneer. Is this the reality of western refinement?

Mysophobia is, like anything ending in 'phobia', a word that deals with an irrational fear. Mysophobics are those terrified to the stage of panic about becoming infected with a disease. In my view, we are seeing that now and it comes as a result of both politics and the media. At the time of writing, there are precisely two cases of Ebola active in the United States, both of them in nurses who worked, under less than ideal conditions, with a man who had travelled from Liberia to Texas, was already infected, and died. There are no known cases in Canada as of today. And yet, leaders are carrying on as if North America were almost like West Africa. News media are leading their newscasts with Ebola and making it front page material 24/7. A helicopter video of a hazmat suit-wearing infected nurse walking to a special jet aircraft to carry her to an isolation unit is shown and shown again...but we get no decent coverage of the squalor and death of hundreds, indeed thousands, in Liberia or its near neighbours.

About 35 years ago, we began to hear about a (then) new plague that was  labelled Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Much like Ebola, it was a viral disease that had, apparently, made a species jump from animal to human somewhere in Africa. And, again, like Ebola, it was not something one could easily "catch". You had to actively engage in activities that might infect you...shared use of hypodermic needles and sexual contact were examples. AIDS never mutated into some dreaded airborne pandemic and, ultimately, treatment advances resulted in the lifting of a certain death sentence in a relatively short period and provided an extension of life covering very lengthy timeframes. But, in the early stages, many panicked and some developed irrational fears of particular subsets of society as the perpetrators and spreaders of some God-created scourge. Is something akin to that what we're experiencing again? 

With Ebola, the mechanics of how the disease is spread are also clearcut. It is not airborne with no expectation it could become so. It requires exposure to body fluids...excrement, vomit, saliva, just to name a few. That is why there is an absolute requirement for those treating this awful illness to wear special gear that totally isolates them from any such potential contact. Despite knowing this, we hear everyday of people behaving in a panic-stricken manner; keeping their kids out of schools; not venturing into public places; being fearful of flying; carrying around giant bottles of disinfectant. Frankly, it is appalling that men and women with strong credibility and loud voices are not screaming from the mountaintops that this irrational personal terror must stop immediately. But they aren't...and the intermediaries who bring their messages to us are doing a pitiful job.

Let me be clear when I say that it is indeed the the job of governments to ensure that the public enjoys safety and security in daily life. It is not their job to inspire terror. My view is that this "insurance" work should continue...it seems they were caught flat-footed, initially. But now that they understand the scope of the significant Ebola outbreak affecting several countries in West Africa, their decisions should be focussed on containment there, travel precautions, and ensuring the availability of good treatment facilities and protocols to deal with any cases that might turn up in North America. Their very serious responsibility is to calm people who are both unskilled and uneducated in what this is and how it works - the vast majority of us, in other words. Given what I am seeing and hearing, my conclusion is that they are failing miserably at this so far. 

There is now great haste to produce a vaccine...and there should be. Too bad it wasn't happening a year ago. Can our scientists do it? Of course they can. We know that it won't help those already stricken. We know that things African have always been subjects we westerners talk about and, with few exceptions, never  address. But when Africa's exports include a potentially lethal threat, we get busy. It's not about the Africans...it's about us. Be honest with yourself when you digest that last line. So, money and speed on vaccine development are suddenly abundant. Meanwhile, best for all of us that our leaders put aside  the politicking. At the same time, let them take steps to reassure all of us that containment is the first job in heavily affected countries; that travel controls are properly established; that reliable protocols are in place to deal with eventualities.