Che: A Hero of the 20th Century?

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What would a week be like without me writing about Cuba? I don't know. I don't think it's happened yet. So here is your weekly dose of the rantings of a Canadian about a corrupt government that enslaves its people and tells them it's for their own good...

I recently downloaded from The Pirate Bay the new Che movie with Benicio del Toro. Just because I wanted to see what kind of one-sided propaganda style of film this was going to be without supporting the film monetarily. I never got around to watching it, but it did motivate me to do some research online to see how many people actually thought Che was a hero.

One of the first websites I found was a website called MoreOrLess which lists heroes and killers of the 20th century. Surprisingly Che is listed in the Heroes category along side of the Dalai Lama and Rosa Parks. In his bio on the site there is no mention of the cold blooded killing machine we all know. It's almost like the person writing the site watched "Motorcycle Diaries" and decided Che was awesome.

I wonder what Rosa Parks would say about being categorized as a hero by the same people who think a mass murderer is a hero? Or maybe we should ask the embodiment of peace and serenity himself the Dalai Lama.

Tonight I'm going to sit down in front of my computer and watch the pirated copy of the infamous Che movie and post a review in the coming days for all of you to read. If you need to watch this movie for any reason please do not pay money to go, just "steal" it, I'll post up the link to the torrent along with my revue.

Muchacho Enfermo

Vancouver: Bailing out the Homeless?

The city of Vancouver has announced that it is buying 700 units to help house the growing population of homeless people in the city. Over the last two years the City of Vancouver has spent over 100million dollars buying up 16 old hotels that it is now converting until shelters for the homeless, the mentally ill and the drug addicted.

Now we all know the only reason that they have been doing this is because they Olympics are coming next year and they want the city and the country to look good. Personally I don't care what the reasons are. No one should expect a government (local or otherwise) to be altruistic about these things. I just applaud the move, now if other cities in Canada could do the same it would be great!

In this economy? People need work, our construction industry that is going down the tubes due to the burst of the housing bubble could be hired to renovate old buildings or build new ones. Also the number of poor seems to be growing, they also seem to get younger and they have nowhere to go. It's like sending a bailout package to the most vulnerable people in society. Wether it's shelters or more social housing units, our young and our old could use a hand.

For those of you pessimists that say that it will encourage people to be homeless and underachieve I ask have you ever slept in a shelter with crazy drug addicted people? There are reasons that some homeless people will not go to shelters. Nothing would encourage anyone in their right mind to live on the streets, no matter what.

The plan... please feel free to add more things that I may have forgotten.
1- Government offers tax incentive to corporations who help in the building, maintaining and contribute to the operation of the building.
2-Corporations in need of a tax break spend money on Social Housing.
3-The governments(local, provincial & Federal) provide the rest.
4-Administration of shelters to be overseen by a partnership of local and national charity groups who would keep each other accountable.
5-Social housing would be looked over and administered the same as it is now, with new safeguards such as drug testing and education.
6-Repeat

Love it or hate it's my opinion... If you'd like to read an overwhelmingly negative response to this please go read the comments section in the Globe and Mail when they worte about this.

Muchacho Enfermo

Petition to help jailed bloggers

As written on Ashin Mettacara's blog Reporters without Borders has launched an online petition to help free two bloggers that have been imprisoned by Burma's evil and violent military government.

"Reporters Without Borders urges the international community not to forget Nay Phone Latt (http://www.nayphonelatt.net/), a Burmese blogger who was arrested exactly one year ago today and was sentenced on 10 November to 20 years and six months in prison, or Zarganar, one of Burma's best known comedians, who is serving a 59-year jail sentence in appalling conditions for criticising the military government online."

Can any of us even begin to imagine what it's like to be jailed for having opinions or for making fun of our governments? It would be like jailing Rick Mercer (in Canada) or John Stewart (in the US) and jailing me for having this blog...

It's just wrong people!!!
Please join me in signing the petition even just as a show of support for our fellow bloggers.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PETITION!!!

Muchacho Enfermo

"Humane" sentence for Child Molester

I know I should be posting about the federal budget, or Obama, or something relating to politics... But politics seem so trivial and unimportant in relation to the abuse of children and the way our courts abandon the victims.

It apparently seems that preposterous sentences for child molesters is on the rise in this country because today my local paper The Gazette reported the story of 93 year old Philippe Hamelin who was found guilty of abusing his "two daughters, Marcelle and Michèle, both physically and sexually in "the most serious way a father could abuse his children" from the time they were 5 until they were teenagers."

Because of his age and health condition he was sentenced to just over two years to be served in a nursing home. Throughout the trial the child molester showed no remorse according to the judge. The only time he admitted to anything was when he said something along the lines of if he was guilty of anything it was fathering his two daughters.

I think that this again just goes to show that we have some serious issues with the courts in this country. Were he younger he'd have been sentenced to 7 years, which I still find way too lenient, for having abused his two daughters "in the most serious way a father could abuse his children".

The moral if this story? If you were abused, touched or assaulted don't wait before reporting it. Report it now. Here's some resources to help you out:

PDF document with a list of phone numbers and address in Montreal.

Muchacho Enfermo

Pope okays return of Holocaust denying Bishop

The Pope today, as reported by Reuters, is trying to tell the Jewish people that he sympathizes with them and thinks the Holocaust was a horrible thing, despite reinstating a Holocaust denying bishop of British origin who had made statements to the press publicly stating that the Holocaust had never taken place, that there were no gas chambers and that only 300,000 Jews were killed in Nazi Germany.

Good job Pope Benedict... Seriously what the hell is wrong with the Catholic Church these days? How can the Church support a Bishop (that will be saying mass and speaking to people as a church dignitary) that publicly denies one of the greatest tragedies in the history of man kind??? My grandfather, who is Catholic to the core, was held for months as a POW in a concentration camp and attests to the atrocities. My great uncle, who is Jewish, is a concentration camp survivor and this gesture by the Catholic Church probably broke his heart.

Even Elie Wiesel a Nobel Peace Prize laureate is angry at this whole situation:
"Pope Benedict had given credence to “the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism” by rehabilitating a Holocaust-denying bishop." If Elie Wiesel is upset that should tell us all that there's something wrong with this picture.

I can't believe that in this day and age people can still try and deny the Holocaust. It happened people. This is a Fact (with a capital F). Shame on you Pope Benedict. You may be able to get absolution through the Church for readmitting this man, but as far as I'm concerned you'll never be absolved of your utter stupidity.

Muchacho Enfermo

5 years in prison for sex with 10 year old

An ex-Montreal pastor named Daniel Cormier was sentenced to 5 years in prison for having molested and abused a 10 year old girl. His only defence was that he was married to her... The pair were married in his small and obscure little basement church with the parent's consent. Cormier is also on trial in another case involving a minor.

I forgot to mention he also ran for mayor of Montreal here's his electoral platform and a picture... click here please!


As is the case with ALL sentences that get handed through the criminal justice system in the province, this one is much too light. He's really getting 49 months+time served for having raped a ten year old. And you know he's not going to be in the prison's general population where he should be, no of course not, the courts are too worried of what other inmates might to him so at the expense of the tax payer he gets special care. My tax dollars, your tax dollars, the victim's (who is now 19 and works) tax dollars; will pay to protect this pedophile from the big bad inmates. Screw that.

Someone in this country really needs to step up and say enough of this crap... Sex crimes of any kind, crimes against children... we've had enough. Someone needs to petition parliament to say listen: WTF is up with this justice system? the dude who raped my 10 year old daughter got 5 years (maximum) that's not justice, that's a slap in the victim's face. And really people, that's exactly what 5 years is: 5 years is what the crown thinks her being robbed of her childhood is worth.

This makes me sick.

Muchacho Enfermo

Hiding Behind the Word Tolerance...

I was reminded today of a word I really hate: Tolerance.

Tolerance is a term that is often used in the media or in speeches by government officials to express the ideal attitude that should be taken towards visible minorities. Tolerance is an evil little word. It lulls all of us into a false sense of security, into feeling accepted and liked by the communities in which we live, because the people are tolerant. But tolerance and acceptance are very different words that mean very different things.

Various dictionaries give different definitions of either terms but at the heart of the matter, tolerance has a negative connotation: you don't like something, but there's nothing else you can do about it. Whereas acceptance sounds much nicer: even if you're different, I think it's great. In these days where a black was elected to the highest office in the western world, where everyone is allowed to vote and where Martin Luther King day is acknowledged all around the hemisphere we still see a world like tolerance in the press...
Racial tolerance, religious tolerance, cultural tolerance. I'm sick and tired of seeing tolerance masquerading as acceptance.

Today is Chinese New Year, I was attending a lecture this morning and sitting next to a young woman of Chinese origin. Towards the end of the lecture a man sitting near us walk up to hear and says "Happy new year... kwon yu yi jang ju!!!" he starts to laugh and says "Did I say that right?" I told the man to take a seat and that me and him would talk outside, after the lecture. We're both grown men so no punches were thrown, that and I have a strict policy of not punching mentally challenged people in the face. But we did have a heated exchange of words until a few people came and broke up the argument. The argument ended with him saying that he was just joking that he tolerated everyone!

His last sentence pretty much covers exactly what I've read in newspapers or heard in the media.

Muchacho Enfermo

It's cold outside... where are you sleeping?

For us the economic crisis started in 1931… (or something along those lines) was an advertisement to raise funds for a homeless shelter that I saw in the subway today. And it really made me think. As I got out of the subway station and walked across the parking lot to my car, the bitter -29 temperature freezing my nose and ears on my short 3 minute walk, I was asking myself about how this economic crisis affects the poorest of us all.

Maybe it’s in my nature to want to help those less fortunate then me, maybe it’s the fact that I hate seeing people out in the cold; but I’m really concerned that places like shelters and food banks aren’t seeing an increase in government funding despite the increased demand for their services as the economic crisis deepens.

We have a paper here that is published twice a month here called L’Itineraire. It’s published by former homeless people. All the reporters are either homeless or less fortunate. They sell for 2$ each, the seller keeps a dollar from every sale. With the proceeds the paper has opened a restaurant, full meals for 2-3$ each three times per day. Every time I see someone selling it I buy one, it ends up costing me about 20$ per month. But the great part about it is that sellers have an income, an opportunity to write and they can afford 3 square meals per day.

But other then this paper, every other organization in my great city relies on donations and government funding. With people’s savings shrinking, jobs becoming scarce and everyone panicking about money; how are these places supposed to not only stay open but increase their services to those who need it the most?

If you’ve got a couple of dollars you can spare, please, I urge you: buy someone you see begging a meal, a coffee, a book or give them money. If you don’t like giving them money, like I said, buy them a meal. Take them to McDonald’s it’ll cost you 4$ and it’ll take 15 minutes of your time. I met one of the most interesting people ever a few years back doing just that, we ended up talking about classical music for hours and the finer points of the compositions of Rachmaninov and one memorable occasion we even discussed Winston Churchill’s wartime political strategies.

So when it’s cold outside and you see someone who looks like they might need 5 minutes of your time or the sandwich took work, look into your heart and brighten someone’s day because the government won’t. It’s amazing what you can learn from the less fortunate when you’re willing to open your heart, your mind and your change purse.

Muchacho Enfermo