Category: Uncategorized

The Great Chinese Boycott

China is flexing its muscles today.  They’ve organized a boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony for Liu Xiaobo.  He’s one of the few survivors of Tiananmen Square in ’89, and he’s currently serving an 11 year prison sentence for not keeping his mouth shut.  China’s position on his Peace Prize was made clear when they said, “We are against anybody making an issue out of Liu Xiaobo and interfering in China’s judicial affairs.  We will not change because of interference by a few clowns.”  I’m not sure whether anybody knows if the “few clowns” are confined to the Nobel Committee or not.  Either way, the boycott is supported by all the usual suspects: Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuela and about a dozen other countries who think Human Rights are something the Americans made up just to piss them off.  Russia has joined the boycott too, but that’s understandable insofar as they don’t want of string of their own dissidents trooping to the podium in the future.  The most notable of the absentees, however, is going to be Navi Pillay, head honcho of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.  Somehow, she suddenly discovered she had a subsequent engagement.  While it’s true the UN has basically been turned into a Will Ferrell comedy, it’s still significant to note that China has enough pull in the Hall of Has-Beens to push their Commissioners around.  Diplomats are like dogs; they know who’s jerking their chain.

The United Nations isn’t the only place that China is calling the shots, these days.  More and more, developing nations, especially in Africa, are looking at China as the model to build political and financial power around.  They see double digit economic growth as a good thing and they want to get in on it.  The inherent value of democracy pales in comparison to money in the bank.  China is using this situation to enhance its power around the world.  They are dropping billions into developing markets with — and this is extremely important — no strings attached.  In other words, financial assistance from China doesn’t come complete with the Clintons wandering around, asking awkward questions and wanting to see the receipts.

To be fair, China isn’t doing anything that much differently from any other world power in history.  They’ve amassed a certain level of economic and political stability, and they want their “place in the sun.”  In their minds, they think they’ve earned it and they don’t feel the need to be lectured at by western democracies who collectively look like a train wreck.  On the one hand, I don’t blame them.  I wouldn’t really be interested in the EU telling me what to do, right now.

On the other hand, China has a lot to answer for.  They didn’t get to their present position of power without some casualties along the way.  Their environmental record sucks.  Their safety standards are literally murderous.  And their trade practices are on the Tony Soprano side of criminal.  There’s also Tibet and their treatment of the Uyghur and a few other ethnic minorities.  These are serious problems that China is going to have to address very quickly.  In an ever-shrinking world, their impact is felt far beyond China’s borders.

Then, there’s the whole question of Human Rights.  Since Tiananmen Square, there has been an ever-increasing constriction on what ordinary Chinese people can see, hear, say and possibly even smell.  Even as we speak, most western news agencies — including the BBC and CNN — have been blocked out of China.  Over the last decade, China has vigorously defended its cyber-sovereignty and aggressively kept things like Facebook and Google from reaching into the Middle Kingdom.  They see western ideas of personal choice and freedom as dysfunctional in Chinese society.  They maintain that you can’t build the world’s second largest economy when you have a billion people running around in all directions.  That’s why a Nobel Prize to a dissident like Liu Xiaobo is such a big deal to them.  They believe he is the potential thin edge of the wedge that could tip the whole structure over and send it crashing into chaos – and they’re absolutely right.

History teaches us that you can’t give a modern society economic power without political power.  It’s impossible.  In a nutshell, a robust economy breeds a middle class, which has to be educated to keep the machines running.  Educated people discover ideas, the great equalizer in any society.  And people who believe in equality don’t like to get pushed around.  It’s just that simple.  Totalitarian regimes have tried throughout history to suppress ideas, but the only thing that happens is discussion goes underground and the accumulated anger and frustration continue to build.  Eventually, it boils over.  China has a rendezvous with history that cannot be denied.  They can either accept it, and avoid catastrophe by slowly moving towards an open democratic society, or they can carry on deluding themselves and suffer the consequences.  It’s not as if the Dragon Throne hasn’t seen revolution or two in its time.  Believe me, this particular dynasty isn’t much different from all those other ones.

In the short term, however, China’s power will continue to grow in exact proportion to the world’s appetite for cheap consumer goods.  They will continue to fuel the collective Western economy with surplus cash, and they will continue to suppress internal discontent.  Liu Xiaobo will languish in prison.  Academics in North America will slap on another bumper sticker beside “Free Tibet,” and the world will continue to spin.  But one of these days, unless something changes very soon, another Liu Xiaobo is going to come along, and the Mao Dynasty is going to end up just as dead as the Ming.

I hope it’s not another “new direction”

Wow!  Just when you think the world is going to be ruled by The Mundanes forever, fate raises its lovely hand and gives you a slap.

On Wednesday morning, Christy Clark is going to declare she’s a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of BC.  Actually, everybody above ground already knows she’s going to run, but she has to make the announcement at an event; it’s in the Official Political Candidate’s Handbook somewhere.  Quite frankly, it’s refreshing to see somebody playing by the rules around here.  Ms. Clark will turn a forgone Kevin Falcon conclusion into an interesting, two-person race.  Some pundits think she’s already the de facto Premier; some don’t.

Either way, she’s following a grand political tradition.  In British Columbia, when things get buggered up beyond all belief — like when the  lunatics decide that the HST is good for the asylum — the men usually make themselves scarce.  They find a dedicated woman and put her front and centre.  She can either clean up the mess or get torn apart by the snarling mob — they don’t really care which.  Then, in due time, when things settle down, the men show up again and start yipping about “a new direction” or “change” or some other such nonsense.   They pat the woman on the back and push her out the door, if she’s still around.  If she isn’t, they just never mention her name.

This isn’t all hyperbole, by the way.  In 1991, Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm was up to his smile in conflict of interest over the sale of Fantasy Gardens.  He resigned his office in April, and Rita Johnson became Socred leader and Premier at the party convention in July.  It’s absolutely impossible to build a political organization in just six months.  So, by the time the provincial election in October came around, the Socred brand was so damaged that Rita didn’t have a prayer.  Social Credit was forever discredited, and it faded away.  However, most of the people involved just moved one space over and became Liberals — with that “new direction” everybody’s always talking about.  Ms. Johnson’s name was never spoken again.

If you’re too young to remember 1991, maybe 1999 rings a bell.  In March of that year, NDP Premier Glen Clark’s house was searched by the RCMP and he was accused of – you guess it – conflict of interest.  He resigned in August.  In the 2001 provincial election, the NDP were beaten so badly they needed a defibrillator.  They didn’t have enough MLAs left to get up a good game of canasta.  In fact, there were only two: Joy MacPhail and Jenny Kwan.  Oddly enough, no men were elected.  Then in 2003, when it came time for the heart transplant, the NDP selected Carole James as the donor, and charged her with cleaning up the mess.  Ujjal Dosanjh went on to federal politics(as a Liberal), Glen Clark went to work for the uber-capitalist Jimmy Pattison (clearly a “new direction”) and I have no idea what happened to Moe Sihota (but I’m sure he’ll turn up.) Carole had a lot more time than Rita but she worked just as hard.  In the next provincial election, in 2005, she and the NDP turned 2 seats into 33.  Overnight, Leader of the Opposition became a trophy worth having again and then, when Gordon Campbell hit the road over the HST debacle, it got downright desirable.

If this all sounds like a gender-based conspiracy, it’s not.  If you need an explanation, suffice it to say that women tend to believe in the cause, come hell or high water, whereas men see the writing on the wall and prefer to fight another day — which brings us to the current NDP fiasco.

Carole James wasn’t booted out by a conspiracy.  She simply ran afoul of that same vocal minority that inhabits every organization: the ones who get what they want just by being a pain in the ass.  For example, Jenny Kwan doesn’t want to be leader.  In fact, my guess is she isn’t even interested in provincial politics anymore.  She’s already looking down the road at Libby Davies’ accrued pension — in Ottawa.  Unfortunately, the Baker’s Dozen saw Ms. James as a typical short-term female leader, who just wasn’t tough enough to actually govern.  They took it upon themselves to ignore the majority (in the name of that same old “new direction” again) and they wouldn’t play unless they got their way.  In her resignation speech, Carole James said, “I know there will be individuals who see this as a win for the bullies,” — and she’s right.  Gender lines are drawn — even in the NDP.

So where does that leave Christy Clark?  If she does get to be Liberal leader — and I’m thinking that she will — first of all, she’s got a huge mess to clean up.  The Liberal Party of BC is about as well-liked as H1N1, right now.   She’s going to have to deal with the HST and the minimum wage.  She’s going to have to build voter confidence and acceptance that hers truly is a different Liberal government; meanwhile, constantly looking over her shoulder to see who’s got the knives out in her own party.  Finally, if she does all that, then she gets to face the NDP who have just demonstrated, beyond any doubt, their ruthlessness.  I was never a fan of Christy Clark, but if she can do all that, survive, and deal with the bullies over at the NDP, she’s got my vote.

The Return of Mr. X?

When last we saw the Mysterious Mr. X (as chronicled in these pages) he had just been thwarted by that supervillian, Gordon Campbell.  He was stuck in Gotham City, wasting his incredible powers on “hacks” and the homeless.  It looked like the end of his dream of becoming a superhero – and Premier of British Columbia.  In frustration, he retired to his secret lair (which was undergoing a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded, makeover) and has not been heard from since.  Fate is a funny fellow, though, and when the evil Gordon Campbell resigned, he set in motion a chain of events that may yet propel Mr. X forward into the role of the superhero – a role he so feverishly craves.

This is the story as we know it.  When the evil Gordon Campbell resigned, it sent the Liberal Party scurrying back to the ship of state to find a new leader.  However, since every liberal from Sooke to Spuzzum had been tarnished by the HST, the prospects were thin.  Liberal ministers could hide, but they couldn’t run.  Within days, Dianne Watts and Carole Taylor, two untarnished heiresses, both bowed out of the race.  Suddenly, only Christy Clark and the usual Liberal hacks stood between the NDP and ultimate power in Capital City.  For the first time since the turn of the century, with a little luck, the NDP could actually win an election.  Overwhelmed by dreams of a return to the heady days of Glen Clark “shovelling money off the back of a truck,” the NDP were incontinent with joy.  However, it became increasing apparent, in the NDP caucus, that not everyone was going to get a shovel.  Even with the bounty of British Columbia at their feet, there simply wasn’t enough to go around.  Some members would have to remain shovel-less. Discontent grew.  Questions were asked.  Who would get the shovels?  How would the shovels be distributed?  Why didn’t I get a shovel?  To make matters worse, Chairman Moe had already staked out his claim by getting a 5 figure stipend from the Labour Movement.  Luckily, in keeping with NDP philosophy, the stipend wasn’t lucre paid out of the profits of any capitalist venture but merely a “generous, earmarked gift” from hard-working British Columbians who had involuntarily volunteered their union dues.  Seeing that dividing the spoils was dividing the party, Carole James decided to end the uncertainty once and for all.  In a symbolic gesture, she handed out yellow scarves to all those who were going to get their mitts on the money after the NDP victory.

All hell broke loose.  Fury is a minority scorned, and the Baker’s Dozen minority had been scorned beyond their wildest expectations.  If they weren’t going to get their share, there was nothing for it but open revolution.  The powerful majority were going to have to do as they were told, or the minority would seize power and make their own rules.  It was the classic Bolshevik-Menshevik conundrum, rewritten bold, in upper-middle class type.  An emergency meeting was called and the media was put on high alert.  Then, in a surprise move, the meeting was postponed.  But why?  And by whom?  Obviously, the political toothpaste was already out of the tube, but power is not what you do; it’s what you’re willing to do.  Apparently some members of the NDP weren’t willing to do anything.

Meanwhile back in Gotham City, Mr. X was sipping an $8.00-an-hour latte and watching the media circus unfold.  It made him sad to see all the microphones and cameras wasted on ordinary people when a genuine superhero was trapped in endless meetings over storm drains and bike lanes.  He remembered the smell of the legislature, the sound of The Speaker calling the members to order, question period and the media scrum.  He knew he could fix the problems of the NDP.  He would show the world the stuff that real politicians are made of.  As an honest broker, he would swoop down and find common ground that all members could embrace.  He’d heal the wounds and bring the NDP out of the darkness into the light of a new Golden Age of Progressive Prosperity.  Then, by golly, he’d win that election and drive the capitalists out of Capital City.  He had powerful friends; all he had to do was make a few phone calls.

Authentic superheroes don’t shirk their duty or cancel meetings.  He put on his cape and was about to call for a helicopter when it occurred to him that his powerful friends didn’t really have scarves.  It was one thing to swoop down on Carole James; it was quite another to go mano a mano with Organized Labour.  Fortunately, Mr. X was an astute observer of political thought and he remembered Madonna’s sage advice from Evita;

“All you have to do is sit and wait
Keeping out of everybody’s way
 … You’ll be handed power on a plate
When the ones who matter have their say
And with chaos installed,
You can reluctantly agree to be called”

Mr. X picked up his Smart phone and ordered another latte.