The biggest winner in Canada’s election is the military
Oct 18, 2019
No matter who takes the reins of Parliament next week, perhaps the biggest winner in Canada’s 2019 federal election will be a […]
Partera Blog
Postcard from Uganda #2: Playing for our Lives
Dec 9, 2015
The Big Wind Blows, if you watch it without sound, looks like a silly children’s game – the one-fewer-chair-than-kids kind. There’s a […]
Postcard from Uganda #3: Silly Games?
Dec 9, 2015
Then the Big Wind Blows for those who have ever participated in a demonstration. Those who have ever been arrested. For those […]
Remembering Day 2015: A Reprise
Nov 11, 2015
First written in 2013. Today, once again, memories of my father, thanksgiving for the poetry of Wilfred Owen, thoughts of South Sudanese […]
Partera in 2015: Turning Enemies into Neighbours and Friends
Feb 19, 2015
As part of its year-end reporting, the Washington Post listed seven situations in the world that had gone, in its view, under-reported. […]
Remembering Day 2014: A Reprise
Nov 13, 2014
;)
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Military Procurement: Playing at the ‘table of power’
Feb 24, 2013
Today, CBC’s Cross Country Check-up, dealt with the issue of military procurement. The programme topic arose as a response to the eponymous […]
Bibi’s Terrorists
Nov 14, 2012
Dear Bibi and your Canadian buddy, Steve:
We’ve just marked a day here that was originally meant to be all about remembering so we won’t forget how bloody, uselessly, senselessly awful war is and that we shouldn’t do it again. Now it’s all we do, all we care about. We R War.
We beggar our social programmes because we want the toys of the big boys, stealth bombers and big honkin’ ships; we want to be ‘muscular’, we want to ‘punch about our weight’! We wanna be in the big leagues, eh. We write messages on missiles destined for some unseen enemy out there.
The Games of Life: Postcard from the Philippines #4
Oct 16, 2012
I awaken to the early morning sounds of garbage removal workers outside my window. From the sitting room of the CPU hostel, I look out the window to see men in overalls tipping the week’s rubbish into large open containers on wheels, expecting to see amongst the driveway détritus the emaciated and bloodied corpse of one of the gang of felines engaged in the caterwauling Malthusian struggle of the early evening hours. The air remains heavy from last night’s downpour, which likely put an end to the growling, screaming cacophony below. The clothes I hung last night to dry on my jute clothesline, strung from one grated window to another, have barely lost a drop of their moisture through the night.
Dear Mr Prime Minister: Israel, Iran and Canada
Sep 14, 2012
Dear Mr Prime Minister:
I have two questions for you and our Minister of Foreign Affairs: Why are you aligning this country with Mitt Romney in the affections of Bibi, said in the New Yorker, reprinted in Ha’aretz, to be ‘arrogant’ and ‘dangerous’? Which gives rise to so many more: Why have you completely abandoned Canada’s honest-broker position with respect to the Occupied Territories? The DFAIT website has not changed; there has been no discussion… In whose interests has this sea-change, having a huge impact on our international reputation, been engineered? Whose voices, whose persuasions move you to act contrary to both international law and the well-being of those living in the already-volatile Middle East? of Canadians? of all human beings wishing quietly for peace and an earth that survives the Leviathan of the military-industrial-carbon complex? Cui bono? The purveyors of the trinkets of war-making? Bibi and his local propagandists? I object strongly to this dangerous trajectory of violence and hatred. Stop. Now.
Gallery
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
Error: There is no connected account for the user partera_international.