Still Want the Turks and Caicos?

Remember when there was that big fuss about making the Turks and Caicos a territory of Canada? Well... do we want it now?

UK Action over the Turks and Caicos

My Last Word

I didn't want to comment on this on my blog but I can't stand it anymore. Michael Jackson and the media's love fest with his death. I am so f@#$ing sick of it (excuse my language.) You'd think with the way people are falling all over each other and making a spectacle out of themselves that some really important (like a world leader or the Queen) died. I don't think Princess Di or Pope John Paul II got this much attention. The media has been ripping MJ for years and now the fake platitudes?

Has the world suddenly got less interesting in the last few weeks? Ethnic unrest in China, increasing unemployment, US/Russia talks, North Korea, Iran, and all those other things?

The Compartmentalization of Ethnic Canada

From the National Post

This realization of the failings of Canada’s multiculturalism and immigration comes at a time when a Canadian think-tank has said that immigration is not the answer to our future problems In short, Canadians need to start having children, not outsourcing our population growth to new immigrants who will merely fill ethnic communities. A study by the C.D. Howe Institute found that even vast increases of immigrants has little effect on the age dilemma facing Canadians from the baby boomer generation retirement as our demographics shift to an aged nation.

The Elizabeth Cross

Just announced from Britain's MOD.

The Elizabeth Cross will be granted to the next of kin of Armed Forces personnel killed on operations or as a result of terrorism in a mark of national recognition for their loss.

Next of kin will receive the Elizabeth Cross - a sterling silver emblem in the shape of a cross over a wreath - plus a Memorial Scroll signed by The Queen which will bear the name of the person who died.
The Elizabeth Cross and Memorial Scroll will not just be granted to families who have lost loved ones in the recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; The Queen's recognition will also be available to the families of those who died in conflicts dating back to 1948, including the Korean War, the Falklands conflict and operations in Northern Ireland.

The Death of the Working Class Man?

I found this article randomly while on Google. I have to say there are a lot of pros and cons with this article (as one can point out just by reading the comments readers have left.) I do have to agree on one thing, she is right, that masculine Working Class culture is dead. Along with the death of this socio-economic group. At one time a Labourer could support a family, now he's de-valued and his job shipped off to China or India or Mexico.

I have to disagree with her over generalization that Working Class Men can't find work in the Service Industry because they are Working Class. It's kind of laughable that a article critiquing classism would be so classist.

I grew up in a very masculine Working Class culture. My Father and his friends believe in sticking up for themselves but wouldn't be "rude" about it or not have "patience" for people, as the writer suggestions. Nor are the racist, sexist or homophobic. Calling them "under-educated" is laughable as well. My Father never went to University but can dissemble a plane and re-build it again. His friends are also the ones who served in the military, fixed your toilets and built your luxury homes. I'm sure they would love to hear the perspective of some journalist whose Daddy owned an Air-Conditioning company.

A better article: The Case for Working With Your Hands

The Problem with Honduras

So who is Manuel Zelaya? Overthrown President? A Wannabe Dictator? Legitimately gotten rid of? Flunky of Hugo Chavez? Or darling of the international community?

Persopolis 2.0

Based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persopolis. Spread the word. 

Oh Please (The Seal Hunt)

Come on Sarah!

One PETA member in Montreal, covered in a red liquid made to look like blood, was wrapped in a banner painted like a “bloody” Canadian flag during the parade downtown.

Get over yourself PETA

Another protest took place outside the Canadian Consulate in Minneapolis, Minn., where PETA members burned a banner adorned with a red Maple Leaf, while others showed video footage of the hunt to passersby. PETA members across the globe spoke out against Canada’s seal hunt on the country’s 142nd birthday. Demonstrations took place in Switzerland, Austria and London, England.

Oh please America, Europe. 

Happy Canada Day!

 A favorite from last year.

The Somme

It was 93 years ago but still fresh in minds. None more fresh then the minds of the people of Newfoundland...

On July 1st 1916 thousands of British and Dominon troops waited in anticipation in their trenches for zero hour. At 7:20am, the mines under Hawthorn Ridge blew. Ten minutes later, the whistles blew. Over the top!

After a week of bombarding the German trenches with shells, the soldiers had been told that all the Germans were dead and the barbed wire had been cut. The Generals said they could walk across and loaded down with equipment that is what the troops did. 

As the attack went on, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment waited in their trenches at Beaumont-Hamel for the signal to advance. At the 29th Division (which the Regiment belonged too) Headquarters Major-General Beauvoir de Lisle and his staff were trying to unravel the numerous and confusing messages coming back from observation posts, contact aircraft and the two leading brigades. There were indications that some troops had broken into and gone beyond the German first line. With these reports the General ordered more troops to go over the top.

At 8:45 am, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment advanced. They had been situated at St. John's Road, a support trench 250 yards behind the British forward line and out of sight of the Germans. Movement forward through the communication trenches was not possible because they were congested with dead and wounded men and under shell fire. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lovell Hadow, the battalion commander, decided to move his men quickly into attack formation and advance across which involved first navigating through the British barbed wire defenses.

As the soldiers moved out of their trenches behind the British front lines and due to the fact they were one of the last waves to move forward, they were the only troops moving on the battlefield and visible to the Germans. Most soldiers reached no further then the Danger Tree, a skeleton of a tree, damaged by shell fire that the troops used as a landmark and gathering place. The destruction of the Regiment took 30 minutes.

By July 2nd, total British and Dominion casualties for that day totaled 57,470. Of the 780 men who went over the top with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, 68 answered roll call that day.

It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can advance no further
-Major-General Sir Beauvoir de Lisle referring to the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel

More Problems

The Olympic Village. Over priced now over mouldy?

A Peace to End all Peace

I'm not doing any posts about Michael Jackson because I actually think there is why more important news going on (hello Iran?) or maybe this piece of news? US withdraws from Iraqi cities.

I'm a history geek so I'm going to give a mention to this piece of news. 90 years ago today, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The defining document of our times, the treaty that led to the Second World War and the destabilization in the Middle East.

 

I won't bore you with the details as Margaret MacMillan has written a very good book (Paris 1919) about the Paris Peace Conference and the price we still pay today for the decisions made.  

We were preparing not Peace only, but Eternal Peace. There was about us the halo of some divine mission. We were bent on doing great, permanent noble things. 

Harold Nicolson, British delegate to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

Washing Hands in the Daddy State

Interesting article from the National Post.