Naomi Klein: Canada gets interesting

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,993466,00.html

Canadians can't quite believe it: suddenly, we're interesting. After months of making the news only with our various communicable diseases - Sars and West Nile - we are now getting world famous for our cutting-edge laws on gay marriage and legalised drugs. The Bush conservatives are repulsed by our depravity. My friends in New York and San Francisco have been quietly inquiring about applying for citizenship.

And Canadians have been eating it up, filling the newspapers with giddy articles about our independence. "You're not the boss of us, George," Jim Coyle wrote in the Toronto Star. "So much for nice; we're getting interesting," wrote the conservative columnist William Thorsell in the Globe and Mail. Four events have contributed to Canada's newfound status as Hippie Nation:

· The Liberal party government of prime minister Jean Chrétien did not support the invasion of Iraq ("opposed" would be too strong a word, since we maintained troops in the region).
· On May 27 the government introduced legislation to decriminalise the possession of marijuana. People caught with up to 15g will get the equivalent of a parking ticket. US drug tsar John Walters has promised to "respond to the threat".
· On June 17 the government announced it would introduce legislation to legalise gay marriage. This will bring the entire country into compliance with a court ruling that has already made it legal in Ontario. US gays and lesbians have been flooding into Toronto to get hitched.
· On June 24 the government announced the opening of the first "safe injection site" in North America in Vancouver, which averages 147 overdose deaths a year. The publicly funded facility will provide needle exchanges and health assistance to heroin addicts. Walters calls this one "state-sponsored personal suicide".

[lcordero]

1. I'm jealous of Canada

Jean Chrétien is a public servant that is responsive to the needs of his people. I wish that we could outsource our Presidency to him.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. You go, Canada.

Show us the way. With the Republican conservatives in office, we've run out of fresh and innovative ideas.

[IrateCitizen]

3. Hey TiB -- keep on reading Naomi Klein

You might just learn something about "globalization". ;-)

[T_i_B]

4. If Naomi Klien writes an article I like

I will post it. it is as simple as that. Mind you, A lot of her stuff I do not agree with. Her argument about brands I find to be a load of old codswallop along the lines of I can see through advertising, but you poor plebs cannot which is patent nonsense. We are all capable of making decisions based on a lot more than who has the best advertising.

This article I have posted is a good one though. :-) The question is, what will happen when Chretien goes?

[IrateCitizen]

5. Easy there, big fella...

I was just having a bit of fun with you, TiB. Having read the article a short while back, I would have to say that it seems to me as if Chretien is pulling a bit of a "Clinton". By that, I mean that he followed some very centrist (some might even say right-wing, in some instances) policies for the overwhelming majority of his term; and now that his sun is ready to set, he is pushing all of these liberal reforms.

It's not much different that all of the stuff Clinton pushed in his last weeks in office. It's not like he didn't have 8 years to do it before, or anything.... :shrug:

As to the "branding" thing, I'd disagree with your take on it. I'd recommend that you take a look at One Market Under God by Thomas Frank for another perspective on it -- similar to Klein's but not exactly, at least not in approach. The general idea is that brands are being pushed as what people need to identify with -- that what matters is the brand, not the individual. THAT is my main problem with brands, and living here in the "Fast Food Nation", it isn't that far from the truth.

[Dirk39]

7. Hello from Germany!

I'm authorized to reply, 'cause I live in a city, Hamburg, where exactly the same stuff happened before, and now we have a ultra-right-wing party being part of our administration:

Once after gay marriage - we were the first city in Germany making that legal - has become legal, you can't turn the clock back. I'm even too lazy to think about the reasons, even far conservative people would just make fools of themselves..., they would still pray their usual family values and talk about how society is destabilized by liberals etc., but they wouldn't dare to revoke that right.

The half legalizing of the posession of marijuana: this is something, they could attack. But as soon as it would be somehow 100% legal, like if if would be allowed for the treatment of pain in cancer and other deseases, they wouldn't dare to revoke it.

Injecting sites: they try it exactly now here in Hamburg. They can't turn the clock back, 'cause most people simply see that it makes sense, but they try to make it more difficult. First weapon of choice: cutting the money for places like this while at the same time investing in more repression. Isn't this the heart of conservative and neoliberal politics: destroying society, take the money away, where it helps and supports human beings, and then push all the money and more money into repression, to oppress the results of your destructive minds. Injecting sites? - What about using the money for more prisons?

I think your question is very interesting. There are things that cannot become undone - only with violence and terror.
There are so many things we have achieved, that can't be taken away from us anymore.
Just think about a conservative party that would - I have a hard time even writing this, cause it's so unrealistic - try to ban women from voting. Conservatives and right-wingers would still try to question womens' rights or to attack feminism, but they would never dare to question this. If you have achieved that the law is changing, only some kind of war or terror could revoke this.
Greetings,
Dirk

[dudeness]

6. good article TIB

i must say i quite enjoyed no logo..cheers