Wil's Rant

I've been interested in the group called the Zapatistas for some time now. They have managed to make the cause of the indigenous people of Mexico known to the rest of the world, not to mention Mexico itself. Mexico can be a very dangerous place for this kind of movement as many others have found out. To my knowledge they have hurt no-one. Now the Mexican President says he welcomes their input into the democratic process there. I hope he is sincere and this movement can continue to bring the troubles of Southern Mexico into the open. So far I've gained a lot of respect for them and there courage.

The Iranian President is continuing with his long line of insanity. He's now threatening grave responses to any American or Israeli attack on their nuclear facilities. I think we can make several points about that. If he doesn't want to withstand an attack then perhaps he might consider stopping with the constant instigation for an attack on Israel. So long as he so abundantly states his position in support of such attacks he justifies whatever steps are necessary to limit his threat. Along those lines, his latest is to say that Israel was established to finish Hitler's job of ridding Europe of the Jews. I'm wondering what holocaust he's referring to as he recently stated that the Jewish holocaust under Hitler never occurred. Perhaps he's referring to another holocaust that I'm not familiar with, or maybe he's just plain demented and thinks we don't remember what he's said from one day to the next. Damned dangerous is what I think!

It was ignorance really, that is my initial reaction to the deployment of DART to Pakistan. I assumed that the slowness of the response time would prevent them from being effective. I now believe I was most definitely wrong. It started with a recent McLeans article about their return to Canada. What has impressed me most is the comments from everyone else about their efforts. The people of Pakistan whom they have been helping are very sorry to see them go. An independent aid group from the U.S. is quoted in the piece about his impressions. He said that his own group was the bandaid and DART delivered long term assistance in the form of water, medical, and logistics support that in the end helped many thousands of people and saved uncountable lives. I suspect that the next time I hear of their deployment, I may not be any where near as critical of the time it takes to deliver this type of support. These folks exemplify the very upmost in Candian values and I'd have to say I would now support their use almost anywhere for the pure value that their presence brings to Canda's reputation in the rest of the world.

I read an article on the work of the DART team sent to Pakistan. It contained several surprises as well as some fresh perspectives. It's hard to combine the images that result from the report with all the other stuff coming out of Pakistan. One source of encouragement comes from the Pakistani people who have been assisted by DART. They have responded with thanks and gratitude for the efforts of these men and women. Another source of encouragement has to be the way that at least one of the DART team members described the people they have been assisting. The team member described the Pakistanis as an incredible people demonstrating the amount of respect this man had gained for the people they have been helping. Apparently the image of men killing their wives and children isn't the whole or even more than a small part of the culture. Perhaps there is still hope that Pakistan will start to aggressively prosecute these crimes so that the real gems of the culture can come to the forefront.