The Montreal
Tribune 
WRITER'S
CORNER
The
Plot
by
Jeff Rose-Martland
It
could be Dan Brown, or John Grisham: a meeting of political power brokers; a
fast-tracked plan; intelligence officer who speaks out; a vocal hero and
career soldier; orders silencing protests; leaked medical files; attempted
character assassinations; large amounts of cash; anger, intrigue, denial, and
manipulation. It would be a great movie, or a miniseries. It’s
even made in
Canada
.
The
Opening:
9 May 2005
- the leaders of
Canada
’s political parties are sharing a plane
back from the
Netherlands
, having just marked VE day. The
Veterans Affairs minister pulls the leaders together for a meeting. The
New Veterans Charter is born. The bill goes through the house with
little debate. One of the cornerstones of the NVC is replacing a
lifelong pension plan for disabled vets with a one-time payment which maxes
out at $250, or not-quite enough to buy a house in most markets. The
package applies to RECMP and Military vets.
The
Union
: April 2009 - The RCMP succeed in a supreme
court Charter of Rights case. The Mounted can now unionize and
officially express their needs to government. The judge gives Parliament
18 months to comply. The House stalls for time, appealing the ruling,
requesting extensions, and introducing the union bill just before the
parliament goes on summer break.
The
Voice of Dissent: Sean Bruyea - Gulf War veteran and retired Air Force
Intelligence Officer. Bruyea lobbies against the NVC, pointing out that,
under the new plan, veterans would get less money, not more. Within a
week his medical records are circulating through Veterans Affairs. Those
records are used to brief bureaucrats and politicians and, perhaps, to
manipulate or discredit his efforts.
The
Success: Bruyea lobbied for the creation of an ombudsman position for Veterans
Affairs, a post filled on
11
November 2007
.
Enter retired Colonel Pat Stogran. Stogran spends 3 years being stymied
by the system and fighting hard against the injustices of an unsympathetic
bureaucracy. Considered too vocal a critic, the Colonel finds out a few
months before his term is up that his tenure will not be renewed. The
hero’s response? If you thought I was loud before, just wait until
after this press conference! Stogran goes public with tales of mis-management.
Veterans pour forth their stories on websites and blogs: claims denied for
ridiculous reasons, Supreme Court judgments ignored, funds given with one hand
and clawed back with the other, heartache, misery, and injustice done in the
name of the people to those who served the people. Everyone wonders
where the money is going. Veterans Affairs claims everything is working
fine.
The
Protest: Veterans groups band together and declare a Day of Protest for 6
November, 4 days before Stogran’s departure. A list of demands is
drawn up, calling for changes to the NVC, increased coverage, and an end to
clawbacks. Veterans’ organizations are joined by citizens groups
supporting their cause.
The
Interference: Reaching out for support from the single biggest veterans
association, the Royal Canadian Legion, veterans groups find themselves with
the prosthetic leg cut from under them. The Legion declares it does not
lobby by protest or rally, will not support such an action, worked too hard to
develop the NVC in the first place, forbids members to attend in Legion dress,
and so on. Veterans are devastated and wonder if their Legion has been
subverted. Government announces new funding for disabled vets, but
curiously won’t answer any direct questions about who is covered and who
isn’t. A citizen thinks to ask why the military and RCMP are not more
vocal in supporting their disabled vets. The answer? They can’t.
Acts of parliament forbid members of either force from commenting in any way
on matters politic with punishments of unemployment or prison. News of
the attempted character assassination of Sean Bruyea breaks. Colonel
Stogran announces that he too has had people digging into his personal file.
The
Climax: The Privacy Commissioner launches an investigation into the Bruyea
affair. The RCMP waits futilely for their union. Members of the
Forces and Mounted hold their tongues. Veterans lobby without their
Legion and add Stogran’s renewal to their demands. Those supporting
the veterans wonder who else’s files are being passed around and if they
will be targeted. Media and The Opposition appear subdued over the
issues. Some wonder if there is a conspiracy at work in Veterans
Affairs. The Colonel and the Vets steam inexorably towards the second
week of November...
The
Ending: Coming to screens everywhere in November. Like
I said, it would make a great movie. If
only it weren’t true. 9.28.10
"HOW
DEMOCRATIC IS OUR SO CALLED ""DEMOCRATIC PROCESS""?" 4/30/03
Do
you want to know what fashion designer Pat
Roumelioti
has been asking Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay since last year and why she’s
not getting the right answers from City Hall? It's got nothing to do with the
shmata business, and it's just something that the suckers from the mayor's
office are not paying attention... really! And, she is not going to stop.
Since
April 2003, the owners, residents and non-residents of the eastern side of
Querbes Ave. between Liege & D’Anvers have been waging a continuous
battle with the City of Montreal – the reason being, the City has
unilaterally decided to construct a housing project of 60 units and a daycare
on the parcel of land adjacent to their respective properties – a lot which
has always been zoned as “green space” (zoning has since been changed in
order to facilitate execution of the project), therefore, had no existing
infrastructure and is, most definitely, too small for the construction of a
project of this size. Although, at first glance it appears that the City has
followed due process concerning this proposed project – that’s not true.
Once
the City’s plans were uncovered by the residents, numerous calls were made
to Ms. Mary Deros, municipal councilor for the area, to advise her of their
opposition, but did not get any response. Then on
May 4, 2003
, a letter was emailed to Mr. Frank Zampino, president of the executive
committee, who also did not respond. By the middle of May, Ms. Deros decided
to contact the petitioners, to advise them that a meeting will be held by the
organizers and developers of this proposed project towards the end of the
month and that notices will be mailed to the residents of Querbes in the
coming days. The notices were, indeed, sent but only to people living several
blocks away. The actual petitioners got theirs, only, a few hours before the
meeting was scheduled to begin and only after calling Ms. Deros’ office,
repeatedly. During this 1st meeting, which was held on
May 29, 2003
, many important questions were asked, but only a few clear answers were
given, raising the level of concern and antithesis towards this project even
more. On
June 2, 2003
a public hearing was held - although, the nature of this meeting was formal,
responses to questions were just as unclear, begging the question, “What is
everyone involved with this project trying to hide?” It was quite baffling
to see that at that stage of the game, where most of the details had already
been planned, because construction was slated to begin in October 2003, there
were such contradictory responses for the questions asked during these two
meetings.
Since
then (summer of 2003), the petitioners have kept up the pressure on the City
with two more appeals, several phone calls and many, many letters to Mayor
Tremblay and Ms. Deros that have not been adequately answered. The City’s
response, if there is one, is always the same prepared statement, “Due
process has been followed concerning this project and all related details. It
has been studied at length by various committees and construction has been
approved to commence at a certain given date” – a date which has yet to be
disclosed. The questions that have yet to be answered by our elected officials
and all those involved with the proposed project are as follow:
1.
Why
developers are permitted to convert old buildings into hundreds of condo units
in the area?
2.
Why
developers are permitted to construct hundreds of condo units on vacant lots
in the area?
3.
Why
abandoned buildings are left to deteriorate and not converted to dwellings?
4.
Why
build on a lot that has been designated as “green space”?
5.
Why
build on a lot that is not large enough and, therefore, the proposed project
would be encroaching on the space of existing properties and adversely
affecting the quality of life of the residents?
6.
Why
government grants, which is synonymous with taxpayers money, have been
allocated for the construction of this proposed project but who will be
pocketing the revenues generated by it, which will be approximately half a
million dollars ($500 000) annually?
7.
What
is the budget for this proposed project – for all the buildings &
infrastructure, etc.?
Further,
during the public hearing the engineers insisted that there was existing
infrastructure, namely, the aqueduct system and that it was sufficient for the
proposed project. But to everyone’s surprise at the beginning of February
2004 and throughout the entire month of March, Conex, a company
mandated by the City of
Montreal
, constructed the aqueduct system which they claimed already existed! Again
during that same public hearing everyone involved with the planning of this
particular project which was to be constructed on this particular lot stated
that it had been in the works for many years prior and because the
government’s financial support was never sufficient for the entire
construction it remained on the back burner. Now, if that statement were true,
then:
1.
Gendron,
the snow removal contractor, who had occupied the land for the past several
decades, would not have spent tens of thousands of dollars, just a couple of
years prior to this announcement, upgrading the lighting and fence for this
lot, had he known of his impending eviction and the expropriation of his land
for construction! When the permit for Gendron’s upgrade was requested from
the City, why was he not made aware of these plans to construct on his lot, if
they had already existed for many years?
2.
When
the owners of the properties adjacent to this lot, requested that the City
pave the laneway, Ms. Deros replied that this is not the City’s
responsibility because the laneway is private property. Furthermore, the owner
is deceased and the laneway is part of the Public Curator’s assets, but,
they would be able to purchase it for the symbolic amount of one dollar ($1).
If these plans were already in existence then why was this promise made to
them during the fall of 2001? Which promise has since been reneged!
Originally,
this proposed project was being touted as a “low income housing
development” where the rents would be a minimum $600 per month, higher,
though, than many of the rents in the area! More recently, on
March 5, 2004
there was a story featured on CFCF News at
6 pm
where Ms. Deros stated that these dwellings were not for the low income at
all, in fact, she said the rents would exceed $700 & $800 per month! So,
the question is this, is this housing project low income or upper middle
class? During the same interview Ms. Deros mentioned that a referendum was
held back in November 2003 and that “No one showed-up!” That’s a lie!
For someone to show-up, announcements would need to be made and citizens would
need to be advised far in advance in order to appear. One may say that yes,
due process has been followed but how democratic is it, if the most integral
part of this process, the voters – the taxpayers – the citizens are
purposely kept in the dark by elected officials?
The
fact remains that everyone involved with this proposed project, including our
elected officials, have been secretive and dishonest with us, the taxpayers
and voters. If this proposed project was truly for the benefit of our
community as we’ve been told time and again and not for the benefit of
someone’s pocket then announcements would have been made early, throughout
the entire planning stage, and people would have been allowed to take part in
this process, after all this is a democracy, or is it? Furthermore, if the
owners of Querbes were permitted to purchase the land respectively, as they so
desire, then it will always remain as “green space”. Of course that option
doesn’t sit well with the organizers and we all know why! $$$
We
the petitioners are unanimously against the construction of this proposed
project!
THE
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!!!
THE
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE WILL BE HEARD!!!
THIS
PROJECT WILL BE STOPPED!!!
_______________________________________
THE
CHANGING FACE OF RACISM
By
Anne-Marie Lafortune (annemarielaf@hotmail.com)
“Welcome
to Canada! Whites only.”
“Montrealers
live in a multicultural paradise where racial discrimination no longer exists:
Between you and me,” says City of Montreal VP Executive Council Francine Sénécal,
“There is no racism here.”
At
McGill University, Dean of Students Bruce Shore is nearly as optimistic about
the decline of race-based prejudice on campus. ”Reports of racist behavior
on campus are a very tiny minority of actions brought to the attention of my
office,” he says. “I do not know if this reflects a tip of an iceberg, or
the reality that McGill is a pretty decent – not perfect – place.”
As
a matter of fact, if one digs a little deeper, one will soon realize that
racism lurks everywhere. It's Lali, an undergraduate Congolese student, who is
followed by the store clerk whenever he goes shopping, or Salma, an Afghani
girl, addressed sharply by a man around McGill and told: “Stop terrorizing
us!”
It's
this Muslim student whose car was brutally vandalized here on campus after
September 11, or a McGill graduate told by a bank employee that since she is
Turkish, she probably doesn’t know what a credit card is. “Business must
be slow over there, no? You people should learn from us a little.”
Minor
incidents. Trivial incidents even. No blows exchanged, no curses left hanging
in the air – nearly indiscernible with the naked eye. And if such subtlety
leads most Caucasians to only notice the tip of the iceberg, it is another
story for others.
“It’s
daily bread. It’s the air I breathe. Our dignity, our intimacy, our whole
sense of self: this is what racism attacks,” says Joseph, a Haitian who
moved to Montreal eighteen years ago.
TOO
POLITICALLY CORRECT?
After
what Sénécal had told me, I was ready to inform the news of this revelation,
I was ready to broadcast the information and celebrate! But then I turned on
the TV and here is what was on:
“He’s
black, he’s Haitian. Prostitution in that environment is normal. It’s part
of their culture, like it’s part of Jamaican culture to smoke cannabis.”
These
are the words of lawyer Yves-André Le Bouthillier, commenting on his client
who was charged with pimpimg.
After
the scandal caused by his declaration, Bouthellier brilliantly corrected
himself. “What I said is that in Haiti there is a lot of prostitution.”
One
might be surprised to hear such a shocking comment from the mouth of a
well-educated man. In fact, most people see a negative correlation between
schooling and racism – the better educated you are, the less likely you are
to be racist.
But
one must not be fooled because then, what would account for Quebec’s former
Premier Jacques Parizeau’s behavior on the night of the 1995 referendum? As
he learnt the failure of his right to get Quebec separated from the rest of
Canada, he blamed the “Damn immigrants”. However, he is a well-educated
man…
We
may be far from the 1920-1930, when one could see around Montreal “No dogs
or Jews allowed” signs, but did racism really change? Or did the discourse
about racism change? As such a behavior became politically incorrect, isn’t
it just subtler, more hidden?
The
fact is that the discourse about racism changed.
Pierre
Peladeau’s controversial “Jews take too much space” a few years ago was
in fact a mistake, a phrase that slipped out of his mouth - he broke the wall
of politeness. What if he had not? His comments revealed a thought most people
hide behind a polished discourse, a discourse “politically correct”.
But
as U3 in IDS Faiz Abhvali says, “For instance the word nigger. It’s not
because one doesn’t say it that he doesn’t mean it!”
NO
SUCH THING AS RACE, ONLY RACISM
Nietzsche
once said, “Man now sees everywhere only the absurdity of existence”.
In
the case a multifaceted term such as racism, the incongruity lies in the fact
that race does not even have a meaning per se; with the United Nations
scientifically discrediting the concept in itself in 1998, race is now
considered as a social creation. But even so, such a fictitious term remains a
very powerful fabrication that has a profound impact on social reality.
Racism
still exists under the surface, worst, it is omnipresent in every sphere of
society and to try eradicating it could seem like snowballs in hell –
impossible. But think about it twice…
“Racism
is very likely a deeply ingrained attitude, and it is almost certainly
learned. Hence the best solution is to assume good will, and to set good
examples in word and action for how we wish our fellow human beings to be
treated.” Says Shore.
Indeed,
individuals are not born racist, so any excuse to justify the persistence of
racism is just lame. The problem has a source, and we need to uproot it.
For
one, we are exposed to it from the very beginning of our lives, that is, at
school.
Fill
in the blanks such as “Travailler comme un… (nègre)” is something many
francophone students came across in primary school.
However
early childhood education is also the result of interacting with friends, and
mainly with parents. From that perspective, one might wonder what consequences
will have on her kids this early 30 years old mother who said out loud in a
corner shop:
“I’m
not racist. But in my mind, humans are White.”
By
the time one reaches University, racism becomes more and more
intellectualized. Sentences in the vein of “Those poor Africans, they’re
lucky we came to rescue them” do slip out of the teacher’s mouth in a
history class.
But
ignorance still has the place of honor, just like when U2 in IDS Carmen was
asked by a fellow classmate if she had a lot of lion pals when she was living
in Africa, the country.
Other
sorts of “naive” gestures may be noticed; although the latest
manifestation of racism at McGill still was during the Carnival, one might
just need to look around – it is all over the place, from the bathroom
graffitis, to the “non-existent” policies.
Indeed,
if one is a victim of racism on campus, there is not much he can do about it.
The Charter of Students states that everyone must be treated equally, but
there is no mention of any sanction if the occasion should arise.
“An
anti-discrimination policy was first proposed ten years ago, but yeah, nothing
has really changed since then. So I guess the person could go to Montreal’s
police office and, of course, tell McGill’s administration” says Students
Society McGill University VP University Affairs Vivian Cho. Considering how
most students feel about our dear bureaucracy, I am quite sure one would
hasten to go tell them, confident that the issue would be addressed within two
years!
By
accepting the status quo, is not the door still wide open to racism?
In
fact, what this shows is that racism is not only found into concrete actions;
one can be racist by remaining silent, but the wound is no less deep.
THE
OSTRICH METAPHOR
Racist
prejudice is deeply rooted in every sphere of society. A politician is no less
racist because of the position he occupies, same for a policeman, a teacher,
and so on. But the problem remains as the existence of racism is not
acknowledged.
“People
must get their head out of the sand and attack the core of the problem by
recognizing that there is racism, otherwise it will remain latent and we will
keep on accumulating dust under the carpet” says McGill African Students
Society President Annie Fa. Indeed, it wouldn’t hurt the ostrich to lift her
head and be blinded by the daily light…
The
most obvious manifestation of subtle racism can be found in what so many refer
to as a “source”: Media. Whatever Media says, we believe it.
“Media
is a very good political tool used to reflect what the government wants
society to look like” says Julia Bietz from the McGill Society Against War
and Racism.
True.
What you see through this tube is far from reality, and if you are not a tiny
bit awaken to what is around, you might believe that, for instance, most
criminals are from minority groups.
But
out of the total criminals incarcerated in 2002, 78% were White. Here.
That’s reality. Moreover, numbers published by McGill School of Social Work
are shaking lame stereotypes;
Immigrants
do not steal jobs; in fact in the case of Blacks, they are more likely to be
unemployed than other citizens, and those who do have job generally earn 30%
less than the average.
Non-Caucasians
are not coward; ironically, data reveals that Canadian born White students
achieve, on average, less in our schools than do immigrants and visible
minorities. And so on.
SOCIALLY
CONSTRUCTED, DEEPLY INSTITUTIONALIZED
The
mention of public services makes frown more than one. In fact, Sociology PhD
student Yesim Bayar was told racist offending remarks by a bank employee a few
months ago and her first reflex was to blame it on right down ignorance.
“It
surprised me because I’m sure he had a high level of education to be working
in that position, and also Montreal is such an ethnically mixed place. So, one
would think that communities interact more, learn about one another, but
it’s obviously not the case.”
What
accounts for racism is in fact a combination of several factors such as fear,
power issues, lack of interaction, prejudice and ignorance. And they end up
being a reason for using differences like skin color, as a negative tool in
order to take moral advantage.
Reports
of racial prejudice from public services employees are countless.
One
might remember what was lately brought up on the news, a scandal implying
Police Officers making racist comments on Natives from Ipperwash Provincial
Park.
On
an audio tape we could hear them referring to the Natives as “great big fat
fuck Indian”.
Surprised?
Wait, there is more. Talking about the police intervention plan, they said
“We
had this planned, you know. We thought if we could get five or six cases of
Labatts 50 (beer), we could bait them. Then we'd have this big net at a
pit.”
If
those are the same people responsible of human security, there are reasons to
be worried.
Nevertheless,
the palm definitely goes to Metro security agents who practice what is called
“subjective policing”.
“If
I am in the middle of a huge crowd at the rush hour and I see one of them, I
know I will be the one they pick for an ID control. That’s just the way it
is” says U3 in Political Science Thierry Ntakirutimana, a Burundese who came
here a few years ago.
The
City of Montreal is actually trying to fight this massive problem with
programs such as “Profilage Racial” and “Accommodement Raisonnable”.
The
first one intends to inform people working in public services on different
behavior.
With
her usual humor, Senecal explains it in those terms “For instance if a group
of Black is being noisy, the Metro controller should see that this is not
necessarily a sign of violence.”
On
the other hand “Accommodement Raisonnable” targets tolerance towards
cultural habits. “If, for religious reasons, Jews need to leave earlier on
Friday afternoon, they should not be penalized by their employer.” Says
Senecal.
The
great Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Tolerance brings with it an
implicit moral relativism – who is to say what is right and what is
wrong?”
Practices
like those listed above seen to be tolerance-oriented, but it would be fair to
wonder why. If our country really is this cultural mosaic proudly praised
through multicultural cities like Montreal, wouldn’t the word tolerance be
seen as a quasi-blasphemy?
“You
may tolerate the fly hovering around while you eat, but do you accept it?”
says Ehab Lotayef, system manager in engineering at McGill.
This
brings into question everything that has been said earlier; indeed, if you
want to talk about a change, it is impossible to do so when the society you
live in is this hypocritical. But, ultimately, the institutions forming our
society are first of all composed with human beings, different from one
another.
Eradicating
racism will definitely look like snowballs in hell until we recognize and
celebrate those differences.
Until
then, “Welcome to Canada! Whites only.”
The
writer is a 20 year old born Francophone, perfectly trilingual (French,
English, Spanish), studied German and Chinese. She plays the piano and guitar
and a Member of WUSC (Canada Refugee Committee), a world traveler for the past
three years, visited Mexico and far away Thailand. She is a 2nd
year Socio and Political Science student at the University of McGill.
===============================================
This
was found circulating on the Internet. It offers an interesting alternative
view on the tragic events of September 11 and how the mainstream media plays a
paramount role ... We hope that our readers find this article interesting.
Martin Stone (Contributing Editor). martinstone@montrealtribune.com
Oedipus
In Manhattan
The Blind Report To The Blind
By Susan J. Douglas
Lucky for me, I have smart friends. As several of us were
mourning and trying to make sense of the catastrophe of September 11 on the
following Sunday, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, the feminist historian, said,
"It's really like a Greek tragedy, isn't it?"
We had been talking about aspects of the disaster rarely, if ever, mentioned
on the news channels: the role of American hubris, Americans' ignorance of why
we are so hated in other parts of the world, and the media's role in
perpetuating that blindness about our government's often brutal actions and
their tragic repercussions. So Carroll thought of Sophocles and, in the
process, offered a powerful framework, barely whispered elsewhere, for
thinking about how our blindered media have in turn helped blind the country.
But unlike Oedipus, who gouged his own eyes out in self-punishment for his
crimes, our dimness, inflicted by the media, may be the source, not the
result, of tragic consequences.
Left-liberal critics have been warning for years about the threats to
democracy posed by media mergers that concentrate the control over television,
movies and print media into fewer and fewer
conservative hands. In addition to severely delimiting the range of
political discourse on television (try to find the progressive equivalent of
The McLaughlin Group, Meet the Press or Fox News) they
emphasize entertainment that they hope will garner ratings, quality fare like
Temptation Island and Survivor. The assumption is that many Americans
are not interested in foreign affairs (which is true enough, but a
self-fulfilling prophecy), so why waste time and money on international news
when you've got Gary Condit right here at home?
Thus the networks have, over the years, shut down foreign bureaus, cut back
coverage and exasperated many decent journalists who feel it's madness for
Americans to be so willfully ignorant about
everything except the Madonna tour. The shutting down of foreign
bureaus has also reinforced ethnocentrism and institutional racism at the
networks—sure, you'd still have a bureau in London, but why have one in
Africa? Stories about foreign affairs, and especially stories about the
consequences of U.S. policy, have been deemed unprofitable and irrelevant.
As a result, how many Americans know about the deadly consequences of U.S.
economic sanctions that have been in place against Iraq since August 1990?
How frequently have the networks told viewers that medicines and materials for
water purification are included in these sanctions? Various
international agencies estimate that more than 1 million people have died as a
result of the sanctions, more than 600,000 of them children. The leading
cause of death of
children under five in Iraq is dehydration caused by diarrhea, with
malnutrition and pneumonia running closely behind.
But the networks have looked the other way, allowing Americans to bask in the
myth that we are a good and decent people led by a good and decent government.
Coverage of the
Palestinian-Israeli crisis has been equally superficial.
Most Americans know that the United States "supports" Israel.
Do they also know that bombs and missiles that kill Palestinians are often
U.S.-made? It is utterly forbidden in the newly patriotic, flag-lapeled
news media to even explore how U.S. policy may have gotten us to this tragic
pass in the road.
Journalists could actually be quite clear here: Nothing justifies these
horrific attacks, but we ignore anti-American hatred at our peril. Of
course, as we hear the phrase "wake-up call" ad nauseum,
we would like to think this catastrophe might be a wake-up call to the news
media, too, reminding them of the importance of coverage—and not just from
government sources—of international
affairs in this era of globalization. One would like to think that as a
global power we can no longer sit here, admiring our reflections in the
mirror, while actions done in our name immiserate
millions.
But I have bad news. Two days after the attacks,
when the media gaze was naturally elsewhere, the FCC, under Colin Powell's son
Michael, took advantage of the cover provided and initiated
proceedings to further solidify oligopoly control of the media. (For those of
you who haven't been following Michael Powell, he intends to do everything in
his power to shred the few pathetic
remains of media regulation.) First, the FCC (under Rupert Murdoch's
directive) is seeking to eliminate the rule that prohibits an entity from
owning a daily newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same market. In
asking for comments on the proposed changes, the FCC suggested that the
Internet provides new diversity, so why not let someone own both a paper and a
TV station in the same town? It wondered, disingenuously, whether
"the rule continues to be necessary to protect a diversity of
viewpoints."
The very same day, the FCC announced that it would also review previously
established limits on the vertical and horizontal integration of cable
companies and the limits on how many subscribers a cable operator can serve.
Now I ask you, what kind of a sleazy, craven opportunist chooses this moment,
with the entire nation in shock and grief, to slip through the initial stages
of two
huge corporate giveaways?
With the help of the FCC, the media conglomerates have forced their news
divisions to make large profits, which in turn has prompted bureau closings,
staff cuts, the virtual elimination of
documentaries and investigative reporting, and verbal food-fights passing for
political discourse. Murdoch, who brings us right-wing propaganda under
the guise of reporting on Fox News, may soon be able to bring us even more
helpful commentary such as this offered by Bill O'Reilly about Afghanistan:
"The Afghans are responsible for the Taliban. We should not target
civilians. But if they don't rise up against this criminal government,
they starve, period."
This is typical of what now passes for analysis of
Middle East affairs. Recommended homework assignment for O'Reilly: Watch
the courageous documentary Beyond the Veil reported by Saira Shah and aired on
CNN, which gruesomely documents what happens to people who defy the Taliban.
For several years feminists have circulated information and petitions about
the inhumane repression of women under the Taliban. But who cared?
They were only poor Muslim
women. Beyond the Veil has only aired twice, once at 11 p.m. on a
Saturday night, when it should be pre-empting everything from The Weakest Link
to Entertainment Tonight. This documentary does, of course, support in
many ways the administration's attacks on the Taliban. But it also shows
the enormous devastation already suffered by the civilian population and is a
powerful argument against the "bomb them back to rubble" and
"collateral damage" talk so favored by O'Reilly and friends.
But let's return to the FCC's speculation about
the Internet now relieving the government's obligation to preserve diversity
in media "markets." On the Net are accounts of anti-war
demonstrations around the country, anti-war petitions, media criticism pieces
by
left-liberal writers, and pleas for moderation and understanding from
relatives of the victims, Afghani-Americans and international journalists.
We hear none of these voices on television, see no coverage of the
demonstrations, no evidence at all that there are millions of us, despite what
the polls say, opposed to air strikes, the killing of civilians, the
perpetuation of the cycle of violence.
We move between the cyber-world of peace and reconciliation, and the TV world
of war and vengeance. The Internet gives us a way to communicate with
each other that we didn't have before, but it also allows our hopes and fears
to be marginalized, stuck in a realm where we all talk to each other,
reiterating calls and responses within our own Greek chorus.
So here is our nation blinded, like Oedipus,
reassured by our media that hubris has no consequences, completely unable to
see that character is fate. It has been, at times, a crucial part of our
national character to have a free, active and critical press. When that
is suppressed, it may shape our relations with the rest of the world in deeply
destructive ways. In a sane world, the news media would do all it could
in this time of ignorance, hatred and insecurity to help the scales fall away
from our eyes. But my friend Carroll is right. The mainstream
media are simply driving
the stakes further into our eyes.
Check
Ethnicity of Montreal Section
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