The 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 has come and gone. One could not help but notice the media was full of articles on the event, and of public officials and others holding forth on what it all meant, yadda, yadda, yadda. There was no opportunity passed up to pander to the fears and gullibility of the citizenry and feed them fantasies and half-truths. A propaganda event, in other words.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in his statement on the occasion, classified the event as a horrific act of terrorism. Fair enough, they all got that right, it was. But he also characterizes the acts on that day as senseless and cowardly. Really. I do not think that he is ignorant enough to believe that, but it is part of the official story that he hopes the public swallows.

While Canadians may think of ourselves as best known for owning the Olympic podium, among Africans we may actually be better known -- and not particularly liked -- for owning their natural resources.

Once beloved on the continent, Canada is no longer so fondly regarded in Africa.

The new, less enthusiastic view of Canada was vividly illustrated last month when more than 1,500 desperately poor Tanzanian villagers picked up machetes, rocks and hammers and stormed the mining compound of Canadian-owned African Barrick Gold.

It is amusing to watch the never-ending battle of opinions, often devoid of all but the tiniest sliver of fact, if that, in the political arena in the U.S. and Canada. It is particularly entertaining when observing the scene in the United States where fantasies and off-the-wall ideas seem to be a staple in political discourse between the major parties and groups like the Tea Party.

So much of what is said and taken for gospel by one side or the other appears myopic, as if people only pay attention to those parts of history that they find favourable while ignoring the rest. One might reasonably conclude that many do not pay any attention to history at all, aside from the spin that they pick up, created to push one view or another.