The buck does not stop here
World leaders playing truth or consequences only a daydream
The graffiti in the airport bathroom stall boldly stated: "End terrorism. Send Bush, Blair and Sharon to the mountains of Afghanistan."
A win-win situation, two violently righteous and ideologically arid political figures removed from influence in exchange for an end to the pointless violence known as international terrorism. Blair is a decent enough fellow, but – as his witless leash-holder, Bush, is fond of saying – sacrifices must be made to end terrorism.
The vision warmed my soul. Arrogant world leaders in dusty and torn $2,000 suits scrabbling across the rocky Afghanistan landscape or slowly freezing in a cave because there are no minions on hand to start a fire. But the warmth faded all too quickly, replaced by the knowledge that leaders rarely face the realities of their decisions and policies – and, even if they did, it would not change the situation, only give a brief glimmer of satisfaction.
The warm feeling was never forgotten, though, and nor was the knowledge that dark thoughts could be lightened by conjuring up inventive ways of bringing leaders face to face with the consequences of their decisions.
The current Kyoto debate provides endless opportunities for dramatic consequences. (Please note, in this case, the word "debate" is being used only as a polite way of describing the stench of deceitful propaganda being spewed by both sides.)
Picture Jean Chrétien dropped in the middle of a Drayton Valley midget hockey game, or an Alberta realtors’ convention, to explain how Kyoto will not harm the lifestyle of the province that's per capita greenhouse gas emissions leave all other provinces in the dust. Facing menacing teens with hockey sticks and their more frightening hockey parents, or drunken realtors, he can always defend his government’s position on global warming by repeating his incisive review of the U.S. position on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction: "A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven."
Ralph Klein could be dropped into the middle of the tree people of Fort McMurray. There he can bond with the homeless living in the boreal forest outside the city, and face the drug and alcohol abuse, violence and homelessness that is the charming result of his government's relentless pursuit of the Alberta Advantage.
If that is not enough to faze a man who witnessed the same during the ’70s and ’80s boom, envision Klein being dumped in a ditch filled with oily ooze from a corroded pipeline that no inspector will ever investigate. Better yet, drop Klein in the middle of Crowchild or Deerfoot Trail during rush hour – a pedestrian forced to suck on the tailpipe of every truck or car with only one occupant, twice on SUV tailpipes.
The best and brightest in the world order and should be dropped in a few places for their mismanagement of agriculture policies and global food production. Forty years after the Green Revolution, millions of people are still starving and global food production is in chaos. Farmers cannot make a living growing wheat, yet there is a global wheat shortage and the price of flour is going up. People in Ontario are sending food to help Alberta farmers who are selling off some or all of their cattle and sheep herds because there is no feed. The Alberta farmers either sell their herds or spend more money feeding one cow, or shipping it to better pasture, than over half the world’s population will earn individually in a year.
We could drop these great agricultural minds in the middle of a herd sell-off in rural Alberta so they can fetch a few dollars each before becoming part of that one per cent error margin in MacDonald’s 100 per cent beef. Or they could be dropped on an Ecuadorian farm to explain why the coffee farmers of the world are slowly starving to death when coffee sells for more per cup than they hope to earn in a day, and more than four times what they are paid per pound.
Of course, the big story in coffee these days is not coffee farmers starving, it is coffee-bean-eating civets and the expensive byproduct.
There is one cautionary note – as the oil and gas industry is finding in Nova Scotia, be careful where you drop things. Seismic testing for oil and gas reserves will hopefully be delayed because the seismic waves may disturb piles of mustard gas artillery shells dropped off the coast after the First Word War.
ONLINE RESOURCES
· www.pembina.org – An always welcome voice in the middle of environmental hype.
· www.maketradefair.com – The plight of coffee farmers revealed. |
