Whose side are we on? Why I (for now) support Western military intervention in Libya

I remember very vividly the start of the second American invasion of Iraq. After months of protesting and rallying for peace, there was nothing to do but sit helplessly and cry while reports of death and destruction streamed in through the Internet. Since then, the long and drawn out military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan has led to a complete tarnishment of the United States’ reputation.

So now that the US and other Western powers have intervened in the conflict in Libya, how can we trust them? The short answer is that we don’t. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t judge the action on its own merits.

Return of the Super Spy: Macho Men now drink wine but Sexism and Islamophobia still rampant in Tom Clancy’s Dead or Alive.

After letting shoot-em-up video games keep his brand of political action alive for the better part of a decade, Tom Clancy has returned with Dead or Alive, a door-stopping behemoth of a book which sees the return of many familiar characters united in a struggle to stop a hideous terrorist villain The Emir, a thinly veiled stand-in for Osama bin Laden.

Clancy’s politics have always been so right as to be nearly fascist, but Dead or Alive takes his work to new levels of racist Islamophobia, sexism, and ra-ra Americana. If you like the idea of a world where “heroes” go around blowing the heads-off Arabs (sorry “bad guys”), treating women like objects (when they notice them at all that is), and fantasizing about their next Big Mac – then by all means this book is for you. All 950 pages of it (I only got to about page 300 – so please if there is a sudden reversal in the following 650 please correct me – but I thought the sample size was large enough)

It may seem redundant to look critically at a Tom Clancy novel for its characterization of Islam and women, but the fact that it’s sitting prominently in the bestseller section of bookstores deserves some sort of comment. This essary will look at how the book characterizes its heroes, it’s villains, and women characters. These characterization result in the creation of a circular relationship where the Islamophobic and sexist attitudes of the male heroes are confirmed and reflected through the way the book’  characterization of  Arabs and women. Essentially Tom Clancy creates a world where Islamophobia and sexism are justified by the action of its characters.

Environmental Justice Toronto activists drop banner off Gardiner Expressway demanding freedom for G20 arrestee Alex Hundert

By Maryam Adrangi, Julien Lalonde, and Brett Rhyno

Toronto ­– At 8:00am this morning, activists from Environmental Justice Toronto risked arrest by walking on to the Gardiner Expressway to hang a banner saying “Free Alex Hundert,” a community activist who has been in jail since being re-arrested after speaking at a public panel at Ryerson University in mid-September.

“Alex Hundert is a strong voice for indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice. His work with AW@L in Guelph is an inspiration for all who are working to build a better world,” says Environmental Justice Toronto activist Brett Rhyno. “All charges against Alex should be dropped.These arrests, detentions, and false charges are part of a greater attempt to isolate effective and vocal community activists, and to criminalize dissent against the violent policies of the G20, policies that perpetuate environmental degradation, militarization, labour exploitation, and the theft of indigenous lands.”

Deploying the banner was in response to a national call to action from the Community Solidarity Network, a grassroots community group created after the G20 mobilizations in Toronto this past June. The call was for public demonstrations to take place on Tuesday October 12, when Hundert will re-appear in court after a judge ruled he violated his conditions to not attend any public demonstrations by speaking on a public panel.

CAMH not so great.

I was sitting at the Fort York Food Bank the other day having lunch and I started talking to this guy who was having some serious problems. After consulting with staff there, the person involved made the brave decision to go an check himself in to CAMH to get some help. I volunteered to accompany him. From the experience that followed, I have no idea how someone with mental illness or drug addictions could ever possibly hope to manage their way through the ridiculous screening process applied by the coldly hostile staff there.

First we were made to sit for a long while for the "nurse" to come. Then my friend was put through a gruelling interview in a steaming hot room the size of a closet. After baring a lot of personal details and issues, we were told we then had to wait in another waiting area to be assessed by a psychiatrist. I asked if I should stay with him for this, upon which the nurse sneered, "You should. You brought him here."

The waiting area was through a locked door. On the other side were two other guys waiting for their assessment who were there involuntarily. One had been chased down the street after posting a song lyric on Facebook and the other was shaking so badly from alcohol withdrawal he could barely speak for his stutter. (I saw him later walking out - "I had to make the speech of my life to get out of there," he said). Then there was my friend who genuinely wanted help.

As could probably be expected the three of them started talking to each other and making jokes. The orderlies did not like this and surrounded my friend and told him that this was a serious place and that he would have to "behave" if he wanted to stay.

Shortly after, they decided the solution was to have me removed, even though they had previously insisted I stay. My friend didn't like that and you could see he was visibly scared to be left alone with these harsh and authoritarian figures. When he stated that if I left he wanted to go with me, instead of convincing him to stay the intake team actually encouraged him to go. After we went out he tried a second time to go in, but it didn't last. He got kicked out about half an hour later for making out with one of the other patients and trying to hold the door open so his friend could get out.

So that was it. My friend was back on the street, with nowhere to go. Having spent five hours with him, I wouldn't say he's the easiest person to manage. but you would expect a place like CAMH to be prepared to deal with personalities such as his. Shame on you CAMH for your unwelcoming staff and allowing a troubled person who came to you voluntarily to be ejected back on the street.

Reclaim Power - Dec 16

The global movement for climate justice is sitting on the eve of its great awakening. Tomorrow is Reclaim Power, an internationally organized action targetting the COP negotiations in Copenhagen. For the last year, social justice and climate activists have been working together to bring together the Global South and North into one organized effort to bring the COP15 negotiations to its knees - for a day.

On December 16th we would like to put our agenda on the table. For one day we would not like talks revolving around carbon offsets, agro-business, CCS and other false solutions. Instead we would like to highlight what really needs to be done in order to save our climate, such as leaving fossil fuels in the ground, developing local and decentralized agricultural practices, protecting bio-diversity, and addressing the massive climate debt accumulated by the Northern industrial economies.

The three main objectives of Reclaim Power are to

1) Disrupt the COP
2) Have outside groups break through the barriers to enter the Bella Centre grounds.
3) Create a People's Assembly in front of the Bella Centre.

History will judge us not by our success or failure but for the fact that we tried.

Copenhagen

On Thursday December 3rd, I arrive. It's 11:30 Copenhagen time, six hours ahead of Toronto time. Luckily, I slept on the plane, so I'm not jet-lagged. The transit system in Copenhagen is extensive and easy to use. I take the Metro directly from the airport to a stop a couple blocks from the place where I will be staying. Through a program called New Life Copenhagen, I have a host who will billet me in his apartment. For the next two weeks I will be sharing an apartment with Joel, Sidsel, and Jacob, none of whom have ever met me, but who have agreed to open their home to a complete stranger.

This is my first time in Europe. The cobblestone streets and streets which curve and intersect in all sorts of intersting ways make for more of an adventure getting from one place to another than in the uniform gridlock which I am used to walking around in. The buildings also seem to have a more stately air to them, but the most striking difference is of the two wheeled variety. As I walk up the street to Joel's apartment I am astounded by the number of bikes I see. Both on the street and parked along the buildings. And it's no wonder - on almost every major street there are bike lines not just wide enough for one, but two or three bikes. Between the transit system and the bikes it's hard to believe anyone would even bother with a car.

On Friday I go in to the Bella Centre to register at the conference. The fences are up and the police are here, but the line-ups are not too long and the process is quite easy. Less than an hour after I arrive I am officially registered as an NGO observer at COP15 with an official badge to prove it. While waiting in line I meet friends from the Canadian Youth Delegation who invite me to a RAN youth action training. There we discuss things the youth might do during the Conference.

Saturday is an interesting day. It follows from two developments which happened on Friday. One was seeing a lot of posters for actions happening around Copenhagen during the Conference, the other was meeting a representative from the group organizing them. Thus it was that I joined them for their meeting on Saturday. As I listened to what they had planned, my excitement grew and grew. It was in this moment I knew I had made the right choice to come to Copenhagen. After the meeting I went to where one of the squats were being set up and helped to install self-made fire doors.

On Sunday, I went to something called COY, otherwise known as the Conference of Youth. This was organized by YOUNGO, an umbrella group for the thousands of youth delegates attending COP. I went to an action group meeting met with a bunch of youth activists who were interested in doing actions at COP (for anyone confused by the acronym, COP is short for Conference of Parties, the official UN name for the climate conference). It seemed to me like things were headed in a real good direction.

Monday-Wednesday. Because it's nearly three in the morning and I have to be up again in four hours I am going to compress the next three days into one paragraph. Lots of meetings, lots of briefings, and a good deal of frustration. As of right now I don't feel the youth here inside the conference are on track to do anything with enough unity or enough scale to alter the direction of the negotiations. Most actions we do fall under the label of theatrics and we are more or less providing entertainment for the delegates. Meanwhile, Canada is insisting it will not budge from its weak targets and 2006 baseyear, Saudi Arabia is challanging established climate science, and many countries are saying they have no intention of signing a legally binding deal. At this moment I feel very bleak about anything productive coming out of this whole enterprise.

Still, there is a whole week of demonstrations to come by an amazingly committed group of activists, many of the European countries are pushing for targets of 30% reductions with 1990 as the baseyear, and the EPA has caused quite a stir by declaring carbon dioxide to be a dangerous pollutant.

So grim as things may look, the game is not done yet.