Coming back to Haunt Us.

It was reported in the Montreal Gazette today that a private developper planned on building three luxury homes on contested land near Oka Quebec, unless the federal government stepped in and bought the land for 400,000$.

The announcement comes in the middle of negotiations of the land claims between the government and the Mohawks, and will do nothing except stir up controversy. The land in question is part of the the same land dispute that started the famous "Crise D'Octobre" in 1990 when Mohawks took up arms to claim their land rights when developpers planned on building a golf course near and most likely over a native burial ground.



The 78 day armed conflict had the army swoop down on the province after a provincial police officer was killed and Mohawks blockaded the Mercier Bridge.

Anyone dumb enough to try and stir up a controversy over these lands deserves to ahve his developping lincense revoked and that's that.

This is the last thing this province needs.

David and Goliath

By the end of the year, China will have 2000 missiles aimed at Taiwan.
The little island 160 km away that refuses to accept China's rule.
China has stated in the past that it might use force to bring Taiwan into China, much like they did and continue to do in Tibet.

China, a Goliath by world standards.
China is now the world's larget oil consummer.
One of the world's largest exporters (of everything).
One of the world's largest importers (of anything).
And many a small economy (such as Taiwan's) would collapse without China's buying power.

Seems to me that someone should say something if China invades a denicratic country such as Taiwan. Maybe Canada or other G8 members? Maybe the UN can say "please stop or we;ll attack you", but they can't say that because China is a member of the Security council and would veto the motion. Maybe we can place economic sanctions on China if they invade Taiwan... But that would be even more crippling to our economy then to theirs. So I'm sure that no one will say anything.

No one wants to take on Goliath when there is no hope of winning.

"Victory" has a price...

...and apparently that price is $3.99.

You know, one of my favorite things about Montreal is the multitude of street artists who use the backdrop of city as a living ever changing canvas. I'm not talking about people who spray paint stuff like "fuck the police" or "vive le Quebec libre"... I'm talking about art, people who spend hours vizualizing the perfect piece for that specific building, for that specific wall.

Sometimes though, street art puzzles me. Like the on this picture. Where, well to be honest, there's a message and it's pretty clear. But did that graffiti make me stop and think? Did it make say wow, that's amazing? Or did it make me stop my car, get out and take a damn picture because it was so retarded?

Well, if you picked the third choice then you're a winner...

Meaningless pollution masked as art? Sorry.... the corner of St-Laurent and Sherbrooke is ugly enough without having someones declaration of love for cheese in it.

/a>

A new look (kind of) , a new post, the same blog...

Well... I've made a new banner, it's not great and it hurts my eyes a little bit... Really it sort of makes them water when I look at it. But well, it's mine and I'm quite happy with it. The new signature at the bottom of the post, I like it as well. The gas mask is an idea I got from my cousin Frank-O who lives out in Vancouver, an artist and a musician that is always apparently on the verge of either breaking the bank or breaking himself.

I've been thinking (since my last post back in April) that the problem with this blog and the problem I had with it, was that I mostly just used it to react to news stories and stuff like that, when in reality it should be a place where I put whatever the hell I wanna put and that should be that.

So screw everything else, I'm just going to write about what I want to write about and you'll all have to live it with or go read something else.

So let me just start by saying welcome back to the NEW Politicophobia...

Also I will begin contributing more to the joint blogging experiment that is Serxy Druck Heo as of... ummm... right now.

Peace out.

The truth is in the numbers.

The Castro Cartel can say whatever it wants about dissidents being paid by foreign oppressors and they can have all the little press releases and columns by Comrade Fidel that they want, print all the propaganda in the world, but the bottom line is: it just doesn’t fucking matter.

I got curious today while I was on lunch, so I decided to do some comparisons of Alexa rankings and compare different sites:

Desdecuba.com/generaciony Global ranking: 73,233 (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/desdecuba.com)

Granma.ca Global ranking: 107,519 (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/granma.cu)

So if anyone, anywhere in the world would like to question the power of free expression and the determination of those who want to speak out: the statistics speak for themselves. The global relevance of a state run rag filled with propaganda about commercial accords with Viet Nam, the global importance of the sugar cane and how rosy life is under a never-ending dictatorship, is in effect: null.

An independent blogger, blogging through whatever means she cans reaches a wider global audience than a news website that tries so hard to discredit anyone who doesn’t agree with the official position of the party.

I would really love to add more to this but I think I’ll let the number do the talking from here on in…

73,233 > 107,519

PS: my traffic rank…Mypolicophobia.blogspot.com Global ranking: 27,446,962... that's right baby, TWENTY SEVEN MILLION FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO!!! That's like 4 million spots down from last year!

Xenophobia

The Cultural Dictionary (from dictionary.com) defines xenophobia as: "An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different."

Somehow though, I simply don't think that the word is strong enough to describe what the English minority in Quebec has to face when it comes to extremist separatist groups. The latest example of what I call uber-idiocy, a group that calls themselves Le Comité d’action politique pour l’Indépendance nationale, decided that it would be a good idea to protest the building of the
McGill University Health Center (MUHC) by planting 101 wooden crosses and a banner symbolically painted in red.

A statement sent to the press said: “This cemetery of crosses, in the image of cemeteries for soldiers fallen in the two Great Wars, represents the Québecois people who, after centuries of battle, are finally conceding to the English-speaking pressure on the continent. The cemetery is accompanied by a banner claiming high and loud the death of a people, signaling that the MUHC represents nothing less than the death of the Québécois people, and it expresses the people’s rejection of an assimilation like that which they have always resisted until now in a continuous, and perhaps perpetual, struggle.”

I resent the entirety of this statement, the separatists group have no right to even equate themselves to the brave young Canadians who fought in both Great Wars, as Canadians. The also have no right to protest the building of this hospital as there is also a super hospital being built for the Université de Montréal.

Once again, the extremists of this province have given my people a black eye on both the Canadian and the world stage.

To the rest of the country we're already strange enough and every week I talk to people in Toronto, 5 hours up the 401 highway and they have no idea that people in Montreal speak English as well as French.

If idiots like this group keep grabbing headlines, what hope does Quebec ever have of attracting foreign investments, preventing a brain drain and of being taken seriously on the national stage?

Just food for thought.

(quotes from Montreal Gazette)