Free Scarlet Bohemia

I didn’t vote in the last provincial election. I couldn’t compromise my values to vote for candidates that did not represent me and wouldn’t put the interests of the people at heart. I knew each one of them, so I couldn’t ignore my informed decisions. Did I fail at democracy? Should I feel guilty for not voting when many people die for the right to vote for whom they choose? I wasn’t the rare example, voter turnout decreases year after year. Shouldn’t we all be so excited and eager to take part in democracy; the so-called greatest accomplishment of western modern society?

The recent election in Iran and the huge demonstrations regarding the outcome, reminds me of my own election participation. Am I taking democracy for granted? After all, I have the luxury of voting for whoever I chose, in a safe, secure and private environment. And when all is said and done, I have a government who was elected by the people. Then what is the problem?

The problem is that democracy isn’t understood by us anymore than the people we see to be undemocratic. We’ve fought and died to create a system in which we politely give our rights away. Every four years (or less as the case may be), we get up, go to the ballot box, mark an ‘X’ and we are done. We’ve done our democratic duty, and now for the next four years, someone else will make all our decisions for us. This is the healthy democracy we advertise to the rest of the world. It’s orderly, efficient and provides results. Therefore the system works just fine. So what happens when you don’t vote? Well, you don’t get to complain of course. You didn’t take part in democracy. Not voting can result from apathy, but it can also result from a lack of options, from disillusionment with the system. I didn’t choose to not vote because I didn’t care, or didn’t have the time. I went to the ballot box, but I could not compromise the values and principles I live by, and sacrifice day-to-day for, so that someone could get a pay cheque, and feel like their actions are justified.

A healthy democracy is one in which the people, the greatest stake holders in the equation, are active in their system. Whether it is through participation in a massive protest against a violation of rights, writing a letter to a newspaper or reading up on the latest scandal; active participation is lacking. Regardless of the structure and the legitimacy of the elections in Iran, the people’s reaction is far healthier and democratically proactive than any in our own country. People are willing to risk everything to have their voice heard, to stand up for what is right and just in their minds.

Complacency kills the democratic spirit. It gives a huge advantage to any group willing to actively participate, and allows politicians to continue to get away with things the average person finds appalling. We’ve been led to believe that government is complicated, cumbersome, overwhelming. That in order to participate we’d have to read constantly and give up all our spare time. Ignore all the flowery language and smoke screens, the decisions made by our government are not complex ones for the most part, they are simple problems, that any rational person could understand and solve, and solve far better without a political and/or corporate agenda dictating one direction.

So I ask whose democracy is this; ours or theirs?

First we had Bennifer, then TomKat...now it's

HARGGY!!!!

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, has entered into closed room talks with his opponent, Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Liberal Party. No these are not secret fight club meetings but a cosy tea time between to feuding leaders. Perhaps they are smoking the peace pipe, because each time they emerge, the two parties have merged closer together, holding hands...singing songs...love is in the air!!!

Canada has a long history of these two main parties struggling for power, fighting each other, no-hold back politics brutally discrediting the other’s agenda, policy and practice. But instead of continuing the competition for the throne, it appears that they are now working together in parliament. Hell has in fact frozen over, watch out for flying pigs. Speaking of Pigs, Michael Ignatieff, though a Liberal, is almost more of a neo-con than Harper is. He has supported the use of torture, supported the Iraq war, and has congratulated George W Bush on being the reason we have human rights today. Scary stuff!!! Not even the conservatives would dare say such things. Not in public at least.

Harper was in flames over the once coalition between the Liberals, NDP and Bloc that had the potential of bringing down government last December. He hid instead of facing it, and come spring Iggy had replaced Dion, and the romance began. And the tune has changed from “Heartbreaker” to “Love maker”. After all, Harper and Ignatieff have a lot of common. Both support the war on “terror”, both support increased military, both support war criminal, George Bush. Both are on the side of large corporations, both support the ridiculous amendment to the criminal code, that would attack small time pot users, tie up the legal system, over crowd the courts and prisons in order to get “tough” on crime. Imagine the horrific policies these two could brew up together!

Ignatieff is no doubt part of the ruling class, and for you conspiracy theorists, we are talking about “THEM”. His background, his policies, and his current rise into power make him the pick for the new world. Harper loves the same fascist policies, but I think he believes they are right, it’s not so much he wants to take over the world, but I think he believes the world will benefit from a family values, conservative revolution. Now, don’t get me wrong, I will fight Harper every step of the way. The man is a menace, but I am much more concerned about our Iggy; a man that has been able to take the worst of the neo-liberal and neo-conservative agenda and bring them together. I know what I’m getting with Stephen Harper, his policies don’t surprise me, what surprises me is that they are not instantly voted down by the other more “progressive” parties. Michael Ignatieff surprises me, every step of the way. Instead of distinguishing himself from a far-right Prime Minister, he is moving Harper to the left, by jumping over him. As the NDP become the Liberals, and the Liberals become the Tories...what’s left for the old boys in blue? CCRAP it is.

So.... Liberal, Tory, same old story? Absolutely.

I look forward to the matching sweater sets.

Carrots cause Swedish bomb scare
BBC News

Police found the "bombs" were in fact carrots
A Swedish art project caused a bomb scare when people mistook carrot "explosives" for the real thing.

Artist Conny Blom set up The Bunny Project: Bombs, at 15 locations near the southern Swedish city of Orebro.

He taped bunches of carrots together with black tape and attached blue and red wires and a clock to them.

Police received worried calls from members of the public who thought they were real bombs. Mr Blom was forced to remove his art - and may face charges.

'Inappropriate'

The carrot bombs had been placed around the city at the request of a local art gallery, as part of an open-air arts festival.

They had only been in place for an hour before police received their first call.

"We received a call ... from a person who said they saw two real bombs placed outside the public library," Ronny Hoerman from the Orebro police force, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

"It was hard to tell if they were real or not. We find this inappropriate," he said.

Mr Blom described it as a harmless stunt.

"After all, it is just carrots with an alarm clock and nothing else... this is just a caricature of a bomb," he said.

On one hand, I think this piece of art would help to bring out a dialogue on society's fears, who we should fear, who we should not. It addresses the paranoia many live with. However, I don't know that most people are ready to address these feelings and thoughts just yet, especially in this way. I think they will be quick to dismiss him as another "terrorist" instead of looking at our culture's increased craziness about bombs, weapons, and control. Who are the real terrorizers? The State.

Now, I can't tell exactly what the artist is trying to do here, but perhaps it is to make a statement that we need food not bombs. In that case, I think it was well done. If it was just a joke to mess with people, probably not the best taste. Real bombs are not a joke kids.

2008 was another difficult and often dangerous year for trade unionists around the world, according to this year's ITUC Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, which details abuses of fundamental workers' rights in 143 countries. 76 trade unionists were killed due to their actions to defend workers' rights, and many more were attacked physically or subjected to harassment, intimidation or arrest by the authorities. The report makes for depressing - but necessary - reading, and is available online here: http://survey09.ituc-csi.org/survey.php?IDContinent=0&Lang=EN

Tuesday is for the Planet Mars
We wear black for the God of Wars
Persistence and Aggression at its best
A Day for confrontation, not for rest
Today might be the day you avoid me
For Mars riles me up, you see
I can never back down from a good fight
And this day of the week, it’s at it’s height
Tomorrow I will worship the muses
But today, it seems I light my fuses.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090606/national/parl_secret_meetings_1?printer=1

Secret meetings and deals in parliament? *SHOCK*
Here we can see how all of the parties elected to government are more than happy to fill their piggy faces when they think the voters can't see.
Yet, how many people out there still think we can "reform" the system?

HA!

At least, 3000 Mohawks living on Turtle Island on the St Lawrence River straddling the border between the United States and Canada are under siege from Canadian military forces on the northern shore and US forces on the southern shore.


Mohawks who leave the island -- part of the Mohawk sovereign territory -- are not being allowed to return. Food supplies are being cut off leaving the remaining Mohawks living from day to day in a state of siege.


A Mohawk leader said that the US and Canadian governments wanted to destroy the North American Indians as the pace towards the creation of a militarised North American Union accelerated. The Northcom Agreement is just one piece of legislation that pushes forward the merger of Canada and the US, fusing the two country's army and police into a single force.


Members of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne routinely go back and forth across the border to go to work, take their children to school or visit relatives. Also, the Mohawk Nation has treaty relationships with the United States guaranteeing the sovereignty of their territory. Other North American Indian governments at Onondaga, Tonawanda Seneca, Cayuga and Tuscarora have been recognized by the United States under 72 Fed. Reg. 13647-13652 (Mar. 22, 2007).


The US and Canadian forces have laid siege to the Island on the pretext that the Mohawks are involved in bringing guns into the US, something the Mohawks deny, pointing out that guns are forbidden among their own border patrols.


A Mohawk leader said that the real motive for the siege was to provoke a gun battle with the Mohawks, destroy Mohawk society and its thriving political, cultural, economic and social structures that require frequent travel to and from the various communities on both sides of the international border.


As the world's climate changes and Canada's winters grow milder, the indigenous sovereign territories of the North American Indians full of minerals, oil and natural resources are becoming more accessible and hunted by the global banking elite, who see the thriving North American Indian communities as in the way.


The global elite are also targeting the Iroquois who occupy territories in southern Quebec and southern Ontario, using the globalist controlled newspapers such as the New York Times and the Montreal Gazette to discredit the Indians, linking them with bikers and other gangs, and also using the pretext of unpaid fines to seize land.


Mohawks have also been subjected to brutal physical assualts and even torture, but efforts to bring the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers to account have been thwarted by the demand from the Canadian courts that the Mohawks pay sums as large as 20,000 Canadian dollars to investigate each assualt.


There is silence in the Canadian media about the desperate last stand of the Mohawks isolated on Turtle Island by armed “Northcom” forces and watched over by circling helicopters.


Kahentinetha

MNN Mohawk Nation News, Box 991

Kahnawake, Quebec Canada

J0L 1B0 tel: 450-635-0345

kahentinetha2@yahoo.com



Katenies

MNN Mohawk Nation News, Box 991

Kahnawake, Quebec Canada

J0L 1B0 tel: 450-635-9345

Some mix reviews: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jekm5GTU8QamBomd5ElPQm2S1b9QD98JULA81

So while I was gone, a few of my plants suffered greatly. I feel horrible. I gave them all a TON of water before going, but the ones that were not happy to start with withered. As well, my super healthy and strong oregano is half dead. However it does appear to be salvageable. I will spend some time with my beauties to reassure them that everything will be okay.

I have a few new sprouts. The salvia is not doing well neither here, nor in the other areas I’ve planted it. That’s unfortunate. I’ve heard cutting work better than seeds.

The weather is beautiful here, sun shining. I hope to be at the beach soon.

Harper seems to be up to his same old tricks. The new terror bill raises a few eyebrows. People could potentially sue countries and groups that they feel they are the victims of terror. Hmmm, which lobby group won this time? I can’t see how this could be put into effect. I guess Harper is now world dictator. Ahh in his dreams. Well this gives me some hope, perhaps I can sue the bastard for all the terror he puts me under every day. Creepy neo-fascist asshole.

War Criminal George Dubya Bush came to Toronto Ontario, May 28th and was unwelcomed by hundreds of protestors. Bush, who was on tour with former president Bill Clinton, spoke at the Metro Convention Center in Downtown Toronto. Bush/Clinton was paid 250,000.00 each to speak to the elites of the city. Apparently there was a bit of difficulty selling tickets and prices were eventually dropped to just shy of two hundred dollars. Toronto was the testing ground for the tour, to see what sort of attention it would get; positive and/or negative.

Therefore it was imperative that the unwelcoming committee was there to greet him. The crowds were loud, and shouted things like “War Criminals Out, War Resisters In” and “Arrest Bush”. Hands were made to look bloody, and a fifty foot banner was unfolded to read “Bush & Clinton, War Criminals Not Welcome in Toronto”. As part of the festivities, a huge painting of Bush’s “mug shot” was hung in the center of the demonstration. People were eager to throw their shoes at the picture.

This was my first demo in Toronto. I found the mood of the crowd to be both energetic and positive. People were undoubtedly loud and angry, but they illustrated it in the most positive of ways.

As for my part? I handed out information, screamed, yelled, threw some shoes, and did “vogue” poses for the secret service cameras. Air kisses for all assholes!

And to Bush? The evil you created also lives inside you, it is a part of you and it will undoubtedly destroy you. You God will not just forsake you, I expect he will kick you in the balls too.