16:03 - 08/01/2009
Better than Bosnia
"We're still doing better than Bosnia."
That was the public response by our, then, Premier to province-wide protests over the discontinuation of public funding for ECS (kindergarten) classes. It was clear that the general public actually favoured that use of our own tax and resource revenue dollars. In defiance of public wishes, the provincial government of the day then took that "surplus" money and handed it over to tech companies - "to expand our economic base". However, what local reporters were finding out was that the money was being siphoned into certain combatant groups in Central America. The government's response was to, eventually, drive all those excellent investigative reporters out of the local newspaper industry. With the help of Conrad Black, ethical reporters were replaced by careful selected hacks who wrote well, but only what they were told was acceptable by their masters. When that wasn't effective enough, either Mr Black or his wife would write a feature "news" piece that was as virulent a piece of propaganda as any picayune dictator could have produced.
As for using Bosnia as a benchmark in what was, at the time, the richest province in a very wealthy country it was no different, in my mind, than the abuser who says "well at least I didn't break any bones" after beating their child/spouse so badly that they end up hospitalized. At the time, Bosnia was imploding as the Serb government committed mass genocide on Bosnian Muslims with the excuse that "if we don't do it to them, then they will do it to us." The Serbian government borrowed heavily from tactics and programs that the Nazi government had used against their own grandparents during WW II. Seemed Goebbels left behind a handbook of "big lies" for perpetuation of the martyr syndrome now rampant in global conflicts.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire
The result, locally, was that the one year of children who did not receive ESC schooling resoundingly failed as a group in standardized, province-wide literacy tests that were always run in the third grade. It cost at least four times the cut funding to remediate that group of children's reading skills. The costs were and are probably exponentially more in lost or impaired long term abilities dependent on the ability to read well and accurately. Education, as well as health care, are investments that bring back $5 for every dollar spent in terms of economic growth and productivity based on objective longitudinal studies made all over the world. Guess the government of the day wasn't literate enough to understand that. Too bad it was defenceless children who paid for their ignorance.
That seems to have been a theme in my perception of events unfolding within my own awareness the past week. I was thinking of it when I read that the Burmese junta was putting off Aung San Suu Kyi's sentencing until August 11. It is so odd that a group that is so superstitious that they moved their entire capital city from one site to another in about three weeks upon the advice of their astrologers, would choose that date. You see, there is an astrological duke-out between the warrior planet Mars and the punisher planet Saturn occurring on that date. The Sabian symbols indicate that the action will favour "A tumultuous labour demonstration" up against "A girls' basketball team". Hmmm. Are the generals thinking that they can force their citizens onto their team? Being that it is a girls' team - the feminine/intuition/emotions - coming into "play", I can't see that expectation being fulfilled.
Next up was the dream I had about the desperate condition of women and children in Nigeria. I seemed to be working on a human rights project, trying to stop the abuse, as well as find ways that the women could protect themselves and rebuild their lives after the atrocities of the wars there. I was feeling really frustrated, because I could not find some key pieces of information that I knew I would need to convince others to support the initiative. Just as I was about to give up, feeling very angry into the bargain, I dreamt I received an email from my friend who does international observer work in waking time. In the dreamtime she stated that she was in Nigeria right then and was telling me about what she was witnessing. It was exactly the information I needed to complete the presentation I had crafted. It was like a key opening a lock. I had a quick flash of me being able to pick up fresh nettles, without the thorns bothering me at all, as I added the new information to my presentation. At that point, the phone rang waking me up. The dream was so real to me that I immediately emailed my friend to find out if she was being sent there, since she had mentioned the possibility of an overseas assignment. She responded that she had been asked to go, but had turned it down because of the danger. Since she has a medal for valour as a citizen observer, I think that means it must be very dangerous indeed. Later that day I read about massacres occurring in the north of that country. "A great disturbance in the force, Luke". Maybe, that was what I was picking up unconsciously.
On the home front, a smaller epiphany. I've mentioned the neighbours on the west side and their very long, loud, late night parties. There have been several in the past few days. In addition, the day I had the Nigeria dream, while I was sitting at my computer e-mailing my friend about it, a shadow crossed the curtains covering the window behind my computer. Happened three times before I pulled the curtains back to see what was causing it, as it was coming closer each time. There were two or three teenage boys sitting on the roof of the west-side neighbours staring down at me. One of the boys seemed to have been throwing something fabric-like directly at the window. They beat a hasty retreat when they realized I was watching their actions. Reminded me of the really bad neighbours I had a few years back whose underage youth were using the pathway over the roofs, including mine, at night to escape pursuit - either from the police or others of another gang. Sigh.
Didn't do anything good for my morale to say the least. Each time I or my neighbours called the police to complain about those old, bad neighbours there would be retaliation through random vandalism to our properties. Makes the decision to complain difficult when one has one's own children living with one. There is no reason to expect that the perpetrators will spare them either, is there? That has been why I have held back registering complaints about the new neighbours until now. Old behavioural tapes running in the back of my mind. As long as the teens remained in their yard I tried to cope with the noise, raunchiness, and rowdiness.
Seeing the broken glass all over the tot lot across the street from me the other day, plus the material being tossed at my window had me in a different frame of mind very early this morning though. Yes "this isn't as bad as Bosnia" - the old, very dangerous, neighbours - , but at the same time I feel I am entitled to a peaceful long weekend without having to worry about what is going on a few feet away from the bed I sleep in in the dead of night. There were a couple of fierce, foul-mouthed, vulgar quarrels that erupted between the males last night as well - which was a new phenomenon for this group. The combination of that and those other factors I just mentioned made me decide that I wasn't willing to accept "not as bad as the old neighbours" as a benchmark for what was acceptable behaviour from these new tenants. I still have the fear that retaliation could occur, but silence is considered consent isn't it? The police officer who took my call stated that there had already been other complaints before mine. It sounded as though there must be a hierarchy of conditions that must be met before a squad car can be sent out. My confirmation of some of the behaviours, plus providing information about the locus of the activity seemed to be what allowed the officer to send the car out. She actually sounded pleased to be able to do that. We'll see.
The third iteration of the Bosnia theme came through three movies A+ and I watched together; sometimes including his mother, sister and nephew as well, into the mix. The first movie was "Crimson Tide". I had to get over the shock of seeing Viggo Mortensen with a deeply cleft chin before I could settle into the story, but that's another post, eh. The movie explored the dilemma of standing one's ground on an ethical question when a sustained and escalating violent reaction of rage and suppression from one's "superiors" was the result. Had flashbacks to my work situation in June. At least Denzel Washington won. The subplot of stereotypes and racism was very subtly portrayed, adding another layer of tension to the story. Hmmm.
Next day, we all went to see "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". I had just finished reading that story to the cats, so had a clear recollection of the book itself. Technically the movie was extremely well done. Probably the best since Prisoner of Azkaban, maybe even better, in terms of reflecting the action in the book. However, the one central story about the search for the horcruxes (vessels holding pieces of a torn soul), portions of the concept which are common to many mythologies including Beowulf and the Celts' Mabinogian (Tales of Prydain is Lloyd Alexander's contemporary interpretation), was significantly reduced. What troubled me was that the emphasis was shifted, instead, onto the on-going battle between good and evil as personified by Harry and Tom Riddle, but stressing the idea that "if we don't kill them first, then they will kill us". An emerging, growing acknowledgement of the polarisation of the wizarding world around those two characters starts to develop that theme of "martyr for the cause". JK Rowling was a researcher for Amnesty International, so presents the mind-set that emerges and evolves in real time situations very accurately and, even, poignantly.
Throughout this series JKR has interwoven the mythologies of cultures and faiths around the world around the theme of redemption so well, that her 400 million books include translations in multiple languages, including Latin. I guess what I was hoping, for the final book, was that redemption through the retrieval and healing of each piece of damaged soul contained in each horcrux would, at the end, end the cycle of "dying for the cause" and instead focus on people living for their beliefs and those that they love. Dying for what one believes in is common to both "sides" in all wars, yet has never achieved anything other than to perpetuate the cycle of violence and hatred. Jingoism lives on and perpetuates the violence through exploiting those deaths (torn souls). It is a hard choice to die, no doubt, but even harder is living for one's family, country or beliefs in the way that has been exemplified by Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama. To live without hope of release from the abusers of their people/communities, but leading by example and accepting the need to be the embodiment of their community while losing their own private lives in the process. Less well-known, but potent, examples can be witnessed by the work of the "Mothers of the Disappeared" in Argentina or the "Truth and Reconciliation" efforts first begun in South Africa. Maybe it is too much to ask of one writer to take that stand though.
Thursday evening A+, his sister, nephew and I headed downtown to Prince's Island to watch our college's production of Shakespeare's "Midsummer's Night Dream". The forecast was for close to 30 degrees C. Yes well, as you might have guessed, a storm blew in unexpectedly with drenching, pouring rain as a rider. Similar to this very moment as a matter of fact; a severe thunderstorm watch flashing on my computer screen, but the cats are still sleeping. We headed for the market nearby that has movie theatres inside as our second choice. A+'s sister and nephew opted to see "Bruno", while A+ and I chose the movie "Hurt Locker" having already discussed seeing it at a later date. It was exceptionally well done. The three main characters are bomb squad technicians stationed in Iraq. Having assisted in the care of trauma vicitims in our local hospital and having volunteered both with Amnesty International, as well as the Red Cross's Survivors of Torture program, I can attest that the portrayals were authentic and very well researched. They were neither over-played or over-stated, just very matter-of-factly presented. Well as matter-of-factly, as dealing with IEDs and suicide bombers can be. Given the accuracy of the emotional, physical and psychological aspects of the story, I am guessing that the technological details were also correct too. At the end of the movie a number of the audience sat for a long time, looks of what appeared to be shock washing over them. It left me rattled as well because of the old, buried memories of some of the things I witnessed in my work here in this city rising to the surface of my consciousness. Maybe Half Blood Prince didn't deal with the "martyr for the cause" issue in a way that I hoped it would, but maybe this movie can. For future generations' sake, one can only hope.
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