Out of the ashes arises the mighty slough shark

I can't believe it's been more than a year since I've had anything worthy or unworthy to say.



Loyal followers? I doubt I have any left. That's OK, I'm game for something new and as such perhaps it's time I expose new people to all sorts of diatribes about pool and politics.



Let's start with politics.



For those of you that don't know, I live in Canada. Wow it's amazing I live in one of the riches countries in the world and I still have something to complain about. I mean, I could have been born in Sri Lanka, even worse I could have been born a Tamil.



Don't ask me what a Tamil is, what they believe in or what their culture is like, I don't have a clue. What I do know is a boat load of them just showed up on our West Coast looking for asylum.



My first thought about this was, hey, that's not right. We can't just let any Tom, Dick or Harry into the country without going through the right process or channels.



I don't think that point of view is all that uncommon with other Canadians. (Hopefully not all).



Don't worry, all is not lost, I haven't turned to the dark side. I haven't lost my compassion.



Sometimes it just takes me a couple days of reflection to find it.



So, what got me reflecting? First of all when this story hit the news there was a strong reaction of the NeoCons that echoed my thoughts above. That got me thinking, wait, I'm never on the same side of the fence as them, there's something wrong with this picture.



So I thought to myself, James when you get that itchy feeling in the back of your head, what do you do? Research, that's what. So I started reading up about the Tamil peoples recent history and it didn't take me very long to remember the war that "concluded" last year in Sri Lanka and how the government forces brutally cleaned out the rebels and in the process either killed, maimed or rounded up the non-military Tamil people.



OK, if that's not genocide, it's close to it. No wonder those people want to live elsewhere. Wouldn't you? Or would you rather stay in your homeland and face persecution, live in a refugee camp and have to rely on the good will of people who probably don't have your best interests in mind for food, clothing and shelter?



I'm thinking that boat looked mighty attractive to the Tamils. These people are refugees. It's my guess that they didn't have a lot of options and that if they had followed the proper procedures they would still be in Sri Lanka. So come on Canada, despite what some people think we still have lots of room here, let's let them in.



I'm not saying we don't do background checks and weed out the bad apples. What I am saying is, if our current processes are not meeting the needs of these people then it's time we developed new ones. Modern process that take into account the way the world is today.



If we're not happy with the way they were smuggled to Canada let's punish the people who profited, not the people who were so desperate they sold everything they had to buy a spot on that boat. I'm not even sure I agree with that. I mean yes, it sounds like they made a couple of Million dollars bringing these people here, but in truth they are only providing a service because nobody else in the world stepped up to the plate to help these people.



Maybe greed was their motivation, maybe they are evil people profiting off the misery of other people. I don't know, I wasn't able to find out more about these smugglers. Truthfully I didn't try to hard. I stuck to mainstream media (MSM), what I found there was more than enough to rethink my position about letting the Tamils stay.



After all, all they wanted was a little Freedom. I hope they haven't arrived here too late.



Oh yeah....... I can hear you thinking right now. What door is James opening now?



Oh come on people, even if we just stick to the events of this summer you know I have more than enough ammo to say all sorts of nasty things about Twig. Yup that's right, our favorite Prime Minister from the moral minority. Mr. Mini Bush Harper. The irony that the Tamil people are coming to Canada to find freedom while our Prime Minister and his gang of neo con thugs are working at warp speed trying to erode our charter rights has not escaped me.

Now that the events of the G8/G20 are safely a month and a bit behind us I've had plenty of time to absorb the implications of what has happened and comment on them without being too emotional, swearing or outright promoting armed insurrection.

Twig, I wish you were just a pool player, because man you've got some balls. In a country that is as diverse as Canada with many different religions, heck many different brands of the same religions, where do you get off shoving your right wing "family" values down the rest of the countries throat?

This is the whole reason behind the separation of the church and state.

While calling for an independent inquiry on the G8/G20 disaster your office orchestrated is important I'm of the opinion we should be spending more energy on trying to remove you from power.

You're supposed to be a representative of the people. You're supposed to represent me. Why don't I feel represented? Why do I feel that the people you do represent would burn me at the stake if they were given the chance?

I can understand your reluctance to call for a full federal public enquiry on the G8/G20 debacle, after all it would what little regard you have for things like our charter of rights and the constitution.

Really I don't know why we're so surprised, after all right from the start when you were part of the whole reform/alliance movement we suspected you were the anti-Christ, or at the very least a religious zealot with racist and sexist tendencies.

I really shouldn't surprise us that you don't respect our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly or equal rights for women, aboriginals and other minorities. One just has to look at how you run the government and the people working for you.

Government workers right up to MPs can't say anything to the media about anything unless it's gone through your office and gotten the "smells clean enough for twig" stamp of approval. So even the people in your own party, somehow elected by Canadians don't have freedom of speech.

What kind of democracy do we have when there is no government transparency? How can we base our opinions and voting choices on sanitzed news?

Truth is, we can't.

So, welcome to Canada Tamils, enjoy your stay. BTW, that freedom you were looking for is under construction.

Have a nice day!!!!