Chan's Personal Blog

I've been reading the headlines lately about the Israeli-Hezzbolah war, and one the recent developments was that a UN observation post at the Israel-Lebanon border was hit by an Israeli bomb, and four peacekeepers have died, one of which was a Canadian. Kofi Annan has condemned this action and says that Israel deliberately targeted the outpost.

In either case, CTV has an interesting report from the Canadian soldier who was stationed at UN observation post that was bombed at the Israeli-Hezzbolah border, and this is what he had to say:


Read the rest of the article if you find want to find out some of the history of the peacekeepers there. The soldier offers a really good backgrounder of has happened there in the past between Israel and Hezbolah, and what the peacekeepers do there. Anyway, I think a report from a soldier from the frontlines gives a good picture of what's going on, and it cuts through the spin. I think Kofi Annan is wrong to say that Israel deliberately hit a UN outpost. Furthermore, the investigation into this matter isn't even complete yet, so I think Mr. Annan is getting ahead of himself, and he's jumping to conclusions.

When you're doing airstrikes, there's going to be accidental collateral damage. That's just a fact. For example, when NATO was bombing Serbia due to its ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, a bomb hit the Chinese embassy in Serbia. That made all the headlines, but it was accidental.

Last month there was a blog article by someone in my class who was praising China for its efficiency in government. The rationale behind this argument was that a lot of time and effort is wasted by debating subjects with opposition and such. Furthermore, they argued that the media was an annoyance because it scrutinzed government affairs. Therefore, China is far more efficient because they don't have to put up with these problems that plague Western democracies. This attitude had me fairly concerned because of how little freedom of speech and freedom of press were valued here.

So, I'm going to take this time to bash the communist regime in China. When you have a government that barely recognizes human rights, really bad things happen.

I present to you this article that about the Chinese government harvesting organs from religious prisoners:


Whether you're an agnostic, atheist, or a religious person, this qualifies as evil.

Reports like this questions why opposition and freedom of press could be bad. This is what happens when you have a government with absolute control. It's pretty scary to have a government with no morals or respect for human rights. Could you imagine having your organs harvested by the government illegally just because of the religion that you practice?

Anyway, hopefully this article will now be blacklisted by the great firewall of China because it's considered subversive propaganda. If it doesn't happen, then I have failed.

It'd be interesting to see if Canada does indeed stop training Chinese doctors in transplant technology until they prove they're not harvesting organs anymore.

In either case, very disturbing article.

Some fairly crazy things have been happening in the world these last few weeks, so lets get to it. The most urgent of all news stories is Israel potentially fighting a two front war. They're currently engaged in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. If you're unfamiliar with the story, it all started with militants aligned with Hamas attacking an Israeli outpost, and capturing an Israeli soldier. The militants want to swap the soldier for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Then, a few days ago, the terrorist group, Hezbollah, based in Lebanon (in the North), sends fighters across the Israeli border, kills a bunch of soldiers, and takes a few soldiers prisoners. Same demands, they want to swap the soldiers for hundreds of prisoners. Israel starts blockading and bombing Lebanon. Hezbollah responds by firing over a hundred rockets into northern Israel. A more detailed account can be found at CNN.

World reaction has been mixed. The European Union is against Israel because they say Israel is using disproportionate force against Lebanon, ie bombing their airports and military air bases, and blockading their ports. Canada and the U.S. back Israel because they say Israel has the legitimate right to defend itself since Hezbollah invaded Israel. Interestingly enough, Saudi Arabia is blaming Hezbollah for the whole mess, while most Arab nations are harshly criticizing Israel.

On a sidenote, this Israeli attack against Lebanon might actually help Lebanon. The Lebanese government doesn't have any control in the south where Hezbollah is based. The government is currently too new and fragile to do anything. If Israel takes out a lot of Hezbollah's leaders, infrastructure, etc, this could actually boost the government since Hezbollah will have less sway and influence in the country. President Bush is quick to tell Israel not to do anything that would destabilize the Lebanese government because it's a democratically elected government which is friendly to the West. (Pretty rare in the Middle East).

There's some analysts that believe Iran and Syria are purposely stirring up crap in the Middle East since they back Hezbollah. Iran did threaten to destabilize the region if they were referred to the UN Security Council because of their nuclear program. This could be the Iranian response. In addition, Iran and Syria may be drawn into this regional conflict. Iran has already issued a statement saying they'll react if Syria is attacked by Israel. If Iran were to join the conflict, the Americans may be dragged into the war as well. An open regional war woud be fairly crazy, but not unheard of.

Which leads us to the next problem in the world. The UN has been trying to get Iran to ditch its nuclear program, and to suspend uranium enrichment. They offered a sweet deal to the Iranians if they were to cooperate, but Iran has not responded to the proposal. The deadline came and past, and the Security Council is running out of patience. For the first time, Russia and China may support sanctions against Iran. More details of this can be found here.

Things couldn't get much worse right? Wrong. Earlier in the month, North Korea test fired a bunch of medium and long ranged missiles even though they signed a treaty saying they wouldn't. This has Japan really angry because they are threatened by North Korean missiles. Furthermore, North Korea claims they have nuclear weapons, so nukes + missiles = bad. North Korea has said that they're going to test fire even more missiles. So, Japan has submitted a resolution to the UN which condemns North Korea for its reckless actions, and to impose sanctions on the country. The sanctions would forbid nations from selling technologies to North Korea which could be used for missiles or weapons of mass destruction. This would be legally binding which means nations must obey this directive.

Meanwhile, Russia and China are passing around an alternate resolution which condemns North Korea, but doesn't contain sanctions. It basically says, what North Korea did was bad, and we RECOMMEND nations to not sell technologies to North Korea which could be used for missiles or weapons of mass destruction. This means following this rule is purely optional.

It's things like this that make me believe that the UN is a lame duck. They talk strong, but no serious decisive decision is ever issued. Diplomats dance around language in resolutions, and they don't want to offend anyone. It's good to be a regime these days, because no matter what you do, there's no consequence. Quite the opposite, you'll be showered with gifts like economic incentives and such. More about the North Korean crisis can be found here.

Top all this off with a major terrorist attack in India which killed over 180 people via train bombing, and you get a fairly crappy week.

With all this chaos, oil prices have shot up to record highs of $78/barrel. It's only going higher in my opinion. Gold prices have also started moving up rapidly to $660/ounce. Usually in chaotic times, people will invest in gold to preserve their wealth as opposed to other things such as stocks or bonds.

The question now is, how much worse can things get? It's time to pray for the world if you haven't done so already.

When I read about this story, I was fairly ticked off. On Canada Day, a few drunk youth were urinating on the Canadian War Memorial which houses the grave of the unknown soldier. A war veteran saw what was happening and took photos of the drunks. The pictures have sparked outrage across the country.

From an article from the National Post:


This other article contains photos of the kids that did this, and their photos are being run across newspapers all across the nation. Could you imagine being one of those kids right now? I'd be fairly freaked out. An angry mob with pitchforks and torches would probably deal with them in a medieval fashion if they had the chance. Could you also imagine being the parents? What would be going through their minds right now eh?

In either case, my reaction is, have you no shame? This is a freaking war memorial. Is nothing sacred any more?

Anyway, I think they should have a guard posted at the war memorial. Another article that I read says that America has guards at their tomb of the unknown soldier, and they have elaborate changing of the guard ceremonies every day.

Police in Ottawa say it's not a good use of their resources devoting personnel to guard the war memorial. My take is, sacrificing one officer to guard a memorial that represents thousands of Canadians who fell in battle is a small price to pay. Given the prospect of defending a war memorial against drunk teenagers, and the prospect of storming a beach in Normandy against German entrenchments, I think I'll take guarding a war memorial.

I hope they catch these kids and beat some sense into them. They're a disgrace to this country.