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Syndicate
I agree with what you are saying about Canada. Are you saying that Puerto Rico is NOT a settler state? How do you figure that?
Puerto Rico is both a settler state and a colony of the United States.
The way I interpreret Fidel's analogy, he's implying that Canada is also a colony of the United States. This is what I find offensive.
Canada, like the imperial master nation in America, has segregated whole nations of people on to tiny tracts of land straddling the Queen's highways and remote regions of Northern Canada similarly. Canadian apartheid is real just as Israeli apartheid. And there is no real recipe or formulaic plan for imperialism. It takes many different forms. Canada is a conservative nanny state, America's gas tank and apartheid state unlike any other. Every country and virtual colony is unique in certain ways and yet similar in other ways.
But it is neither helpful to anyone to point out only the most brutal and racist aspects of imperialism, like Israeli apartheid or North American apartheid. Hurtig's comparisons to the unincorporated 4th world virtual colony of Puerto Rico are valid, and Canada is undergoing various stages of corporate Ameriuca's colonization nonetheless. We might not be exactly like any other virtual US colony, but there are superrich Americans and Canadians who are working hard to achieve it and would like very much to make it happen.
If likening Canada to a kind of Northern Puerto Rico works to draw nearly as much attention to U.S. corporatocracy's increased ownership and control of Canada's economy and culture as what 'Israeli apartheid' does to draw global attention to the appalling conditions there, then the analogy, simile and metaphorical values are worth far more than the risk of offending a few overly proud power elites and nationalists in any country.
Sorry Fidel, but I just can't accept the idea that Canada is a colonized nation. Not when Canada has been invloved in the occupation of Afghanistan for the last 10 years. Not when Canadian mining companies are supporting untold repression and plunder of resources in Latin America. Need I go on?
The 30 or so superrich families and conglomerates in Canada before CUSFTA and NAFTA thought the same thing. They thought that FTA and NAFTA would guarantee them access to US markets. And like all capitalists they had their sights set on monopoly control of markets in the U.S. Instead the reverse has happened. About three dozen key sectors of Canada's economy are now majority foreign-owned and controlled and mostly by rich Americans. 14, 418 predatory takeovers of Canadian corporations and valuable crown assets since 1985 and mostly by superrich Americans.
Since the scrapping of FIRA, FTA and NAFTA, not one single sector of US economy is majority foreign-owned and controlled by any Canadians or pension funds. Not a single one. No rich country has allowed a third as much foreign ownership and control of its manufacturing sector as Canada has. And other than Iraq, Canada is the only oil-rich country in the world without a national petroleum company. Canada is the only NAFTA partner of the original three whose national energy policy is dictated to us from corporate board rooms in America. The hollowing-out of Canada is ongoing. Wikipedia makes a small mention to the fact that certain economists have described Canada's economy as more a colonial style one based on resource extraction than is true of other G8 imperialist standards for developed world economies.
Also, I'm not sure how other people are using it, but "Israeli apartheid" isn't an analogy, it's a term which is legally defined in international law and which is a concrete system of oppression.
No one here is denying the reality of Israeli apartheid. But we don't have to ignore every other form of imperialism just because it isn't on the radar for white bourgeois anti-racists with egos the size of planets.
Apparently some of us are overly sensitive about the increasing number of absentee corporate landlords controlling Canada's economy. And in some ways Puerto Rico demands more of its US colonizers than Canada with a number of oil refineries located in Puerto Rico. Here our corrupt stooges are attempting to export petrorefinery and petrochemical jobs as well as the unprocessed tar goo to corporate America. It was British imperialist benjamin Disraeli who said about Britain's colonies: Never let them make so much as a hairpin. And very few things are made in Canada these days. We ship raw materials from the colony, and our imperial masters ship us back toilet paper made from old growth forest in B.C., and plastic widgets galore, and everything imaginable that could be easily made by Canadian workers.
And our military is basically a subserviant colonial troop force in the service of US empire. The US Military goes in first, and our corrupt stooges follow Uncle Sam's orders on the double-double. Phony war on terror? Aye-aye, says Ottawa.
Fidel, I don't deny these foreign takeovers, but they do not IMO, add up to Canada being a colonized country.
And I'm gonna have to call bs on the notion that Canada's military is just a subservient troop force in the service of US empire. Canada has a history of using the Canadian military to protect the interests of Canadian corporations abroad. Read the Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy by Yves Engler if you don't believe me.
Majority foreign ownership and control of three dozen key sectors of the economy is significant. If it is not corporate American colonization, then why haven't other rich countries opened their doors to thousands of predatory acquisitions the same? Which other OECD nation thinks as our bought and paid-for stooges in Ottawa do? The answer is: none. Not a single one.
lol! Yeah like the real imperialists have cut us in for a slice of the petroleum action in Iraq or Libya. Employees of SNC Lavalin of Canada tried to aid passage of Gadaffi family survivors of US-Qa'ada terror in Libya. Like the Romanovs had to be murdered, so did the Gadaffis have to be eliminated to guarantee the safety of the new U.S.-Qa'eda-NATO Islamic emirate in the maghreb. Nobody defies a vicious empire.
Our military-industrial complex is a mini mirror image of their's and serves mainly US Military interests and supplies thousands of private contractors in America with weapons parts and components. It's a closed economy and doesn't show up in Canada's GDP figures. We supply them in the imperial master nation, the one with the largest nuclear-armed military in the world, and not the other way around.
Our corrupt stooges shipped an entire aircraft industry to corporate America with Avro. Thousands of Canadian jobs and technical talent were siphoned off to the imperial master nation because they instructed Ottawa to do so. These are the actions of a subserviant virtual colony of the USSA and not a real imperial master nation.
Especially the NDP, who had no trouble voting unanimously for it...
The NDP has never governed federally and are therefore not responsible for the hollowing-out of Canada. The sellout of Canadian interests and resources to corporate colonizers has occurred since at least the St Laurent government and only stepped-up to a frenzied pace since Mulroney and Chretien. We're still talking about the corporate colonization of Canada with rubberstamp approvals by a parade of Tory and Liberal governments alike over the last 30-35 years.
English is a remarkably adaptable language.
Canada: A government of US toadys
Canada: Corporate US lackeys/lapdogs
Canada: US ass-kissers
And that's after midnight off the top of my head.
It ain't rocket science.
Being open to hearing how we have internalized the oppressive language and ideas of the dominant classes, indeed, understanding times where we are unquestioningly in alliance with the dominant classes (and we all are in various ways), is the first step towards learning how to stand with those who experience oppressions that we do not. It's the first step towards unlearning all the bullshit taught to us about any folks called "those folks" who are "other".
Or not.
For the record, I greatly value many of Fidel's contributions to babble over the years. I also agree with Catchfire about the perhaps unintended meaning behind the specific phraseology in question. Like the term "lame", sometimes you don't know you're using oppressive language until someone tells you (that was my experience with the word "lame" a few years ago). Then someone told me, and I shut the fuck up re. using that word to mean something stupid or something I didn't like. I got over it, I found other words. No biggie.
Okay but at some point the colourful terms will become meaningless and wear thin. People will demand evidence and details and even comparisons to other virtual colonies. Puerto Rico is an ideal candidate as described before. Puerto Rico is to increasingly hollowed-out Canada as apartheid South Africa is to Israel and the territories. We even share the same imperialist controllers: Washington and corporate America. All colonial paths lead to roughly the same few imperialist orchestrators but only Canada and Puerto Rico are unincorporated virtual colonies without representation in US Government. Israel a frontline state for a vicious empire during the cold war and Canada and Puerto Rico export platforms for US taxpayer-subsidized corporations, suppliers of raw materials and political support and so on.
Again, we aren't concerned about slurs "rooted in colonialist and racist thinking" when using the wildly controversial term, Israeli apartheid. So why apply a different standard to two virtual colonies of the US empire: Canada and Puerto Rico? There is nothing racist or colonialist in comparing Puerto Rico and Canada. We certainly aren't worried about offending Israeli nationals or anyone else with ties to Israel. It's open season on Israel on babble, and we definitely are offending various people with using that term no doubt about it.
Here's new for ya, Fidel, all of the indigenous people I've ever spoken to or heard speak on the topic absolutely love the term Israeli apartheid; they even think the apartheid analogy applies to the situation of indigenous peoples in this country. And all the South Africans I've ever heard or read on the subject love the term as well -- they think it's a very apt description of what's going on in Palestine. That's why I personally don't worry about the use of the term.
Or how about Canadian apartheid? I'll bet very few native Canadians fret about offending any white Israeli or South African nationals. And we can bet there will be many Jewish people and white South Africans who are not at all offended by the appending of the term apartheid to their country's name. And a certain percentage of the sum total offended will take offense merely because they know it is true and wishing that wrongs could be righted. Ever think about that?
Should we ask the 40% of Puerto Rican population who've fled the island colony to be absorbed in American-speaking urban slums how they feel about Mel Hurtig abusing their national pride in this way? How would they respond? What do Puerto Rico's Amerindian population, or what's left of it, feel about Canada as another Puerto Rico with a few differences?
@Fidel: So why not switch your Canada = 'Northern Puerto Rico' to Canada = 'Northern Israel'?
It doesn't work for me. Israel is a sovereign nation not an near territory or supplier of raw materials to the imperial master nation. Israel is solely used and abused for the purpose of being a militarized frontline state for their imperial masters in Warshington. Canada does not receive any financial or military aid from America and more than all other countries, like Israel does.
And besides Israel is located in imperialist John Foster Dulles' "Middle East", which is nowhere near the virtual colonies of Puerto Rico or Canada. I'm liking Puerto Rico plus Canada for various other reasons, too.
So who doesn't want to be associated with Puerto Ricans? What's wrong with adopting Puerto Rico as our twin virtual colony? What does anyone hold against Puerto Rico or Puerto Ricans? Are they not good enough to compare to YOU and corporate America's hollowing-out of Canada? What's really eating your bacon when it comes to Canada at the back of the virtual colonial bus with Puerto Ricans? I think we should all find the nearest Puerto Rican and give them a wet kiss on the cheek and big friendly bear hug while we're at it, because I heart Puerto Ricans! And you?
too much resistance in Puerto Rico as compared to the servile Canada. Maybe Austria..?
At least with Austria's proportional voting system we have a good idea of the number of the resistance.
Puerto Rico was hollowed-out and independence movement destroyed some time ago by Hoover's boys.
Meanwhile in Canada, 60% of the pathetic voter turnout did not for herr Harper or his pro-USA, pro corporate agenda. I think most Canadians do not subscribe to Harper's vision for Canada.
But we have to work harder and encourage even more working class and bourgeois Canadians to unplug from "the matrix." There are still a significant number of taxi drivers, low wage slaves, and $40,000 thousand dollar a year capitalists who still believe that they have vested interests in the imperial-colonial order of things. And they may even fight us every step of the way.
The first people to ask whether or not they're offended by the analogy are the indigenous peoples of Canada. Specifially, are they ok with an analogy that paints Canada as the victim of US imperialism, when the indigenous peoples of Canada are themselves the victim of the settler-colonial policies of the Canadian state.
Then let's ask all the other peoples around the world who are victims of Canadian imperialism if they're ok with an analogy that seeks to paint Canada as a victim of injustice, rather than a perpetrator of it.
I suspect the answer would be that most are not ok with it.
Why do babble moderators not equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism? Catchfire and Rebecca ferociously oppose it.
Okay but only after we survey all of the victims and survivor's familes who've suffered at the hands and foreign policies of vicious empire central in the USSA first. Deal or no deal.
For the record, you can take it to any gringo operated bank of your choice that it wasn't me. Besides, I've been fairly up front with my complaints about you, which should be known well enough by now as mostly involving your political affiliation. On the other hand, I've come to appreciate your contributions here on the board as valuable reminders of what social democratic politics is ultimately capable of when the chips are down.
We bear witness to an era in which activism struggles to find an effective voice anywhere. One hundred thousand Quebecers in the streets, and all the Charest regime can manage to say is that they'll talk, under the provision that none of the concerns are brought to the table. And everywhere we hear the cadence of police battalions marshalling against the slightest signs of unrest. Under the Harper gang the right of people to withhold their labour by organizing a strike in revolt against working conditions has become an antiquated relic of the past, where the law is enacted to force people back to work against their will, and where obedience is the immediate response from the labour organizations representing them. There's a real and growing sense that a general powerlessness dominates to make it nearly impossible to effect any sort of change to today's circumstances.
It is here on the board that we tend to experience the ramifications of activism's impotence in society. This is one of the few places where a certain anti-oppression analysis and model has been attempted; one that doesn't enjoy two seconds worth of consideration just about anywhere else. It's here that they've chosen to try and hold the line as they see it. Right or wrong, and taking into account all the back and forth reasonings thereof, I just think it's too unkind to try and press for another defeat. And because this is one of the few places where the power exists to ward off defeat, I doubt they'll be in the mood to entertain one anytime soon. I can't say that I blame them when you look around.
Okay but why do babble moderators not equate criticism of US-backed apartheid in Israel with anti-Semitism while, and at the same time, telling me that criticism of US-backed colonialism in Canada and/or Puerto Rico is "rooted in racist and colonialist thinking"?
Are mini inquisitors capable of reading your mind, too, Slumberjack?
If I tell you that by uttering the name of a country it is rooted in "colonialist and racist thinking", then how can I possibly know that unless I completely ignore the overall context in which it is expressed, conveyed and overall idea completed while inferring an entirely wrong context and one in which I have conjured-up from the white bourgeois depths of my own mind? I'm saying the idea that is inserted into our heads conjoining the geographical term 'Northern Puerto Rico' and 'racial slur', is completely fabricated by the babble inquisition.
It is they who imagined the offensive imagery in their own minds first and not I. I am meaning something entirely different than what the inquisitors have created in their own minds and only after they completely obliterate the original context in which it was uttered.
And my first question above is worth a second look, too.
That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes Fidel. If you don't think it's fair, I suggest you try one of these. But like any triage or vetting process where the concerns are attended to in order of priority...well, you might want to pack a lunch. And I don't actually know if they can read my mind, but I'd seriously counsel against it for their own sake.
That's too bad because that points to validity of my theory for WBAIWETSOPWFMRD, and their white bourgeois anti-racist egos really are as big as a planet and surely worth far, far more than my piddling donation to rabble.
But at least their egos inflated by bicycle pumps on the hour and half hour remain intact and unscathed. Some things are just bigger than rabble itself. Way bigger.
Why do moderators not equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism?
It's the new and improved reverse charge of heresy on babble.
Do their egos compare with Jupiter?
Jupiter is a hot and gaseous planet 318 times more massive than the earth and rumored to be the celestial equivalent to an over-inflated moderator ego. Wiki says(rough quote): The outer atmosphere of the colossal ego is visibly segregated into several bands of conflicting policies, resulting in turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. Or something pretty close to it.
Yes I agree Fidel, we should one day get pumped up for a serious conversation regarding their behaviour. I'll try and introduce an admittedly thus far narrow understanding of an obscure strain of anti-political anarchism to the questions, and similarly, you could tell us how their behaviour informs upon whatever confines you've been working from.
dp
I'm there, SJ. And I think it is the babble dynamic at play. I admit that I have never been so challenged by other lefties, anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists who think as I do.
This is me with my lefty soul bared for all to observe, criticize, disrespect, reject, ignore, and even hopefully approve of. Surely there can be a compromise, or at least a thoughtful explanation given for the two conflicting policies.
I would have thought it'd be a challenge enough just to find those who do.
The difference between "Israeli apartheid" and "Northern Puerto Rico", in my estimation, is:
That's more than enough for me, an ally in a First world country, to use the term with confidence and solidarity. Sure it pisses some people off. So does the term "worker" rather than "taxpayer". The term "corporate thug" pisses some people off. So? I don't give a shit what ruling class folks (and their spokespeople) think about that.
As to Canada being a colonial power, of course it is! Canadian apatheid is in fact an extremely apt description of the Indian Act and the system of reservations put in place when the invaders arrived and colonized what is now called Canada. Just because it's been a longer run here than in Palestine doesn't make it any less true.
Was there an argument about Canada being a victim of US imperialism? If so, thanks for the chuckle.