Canada's worst...

(This was originally posted as a comment to number 19 of the blog 101people.)

If you think same sex marriage was the worst thing Paul Martin did to Canada, you have your head in the sand. He did far more damage than that.

I am only up to here (19) in the list, and there are some that should have come long before this twit.

Worst PM - John George Diefenbaker. His solid sucker punch the national solar plexus knocked the wind out of an enthusiastic post-war Canada, convinced Canadians from Ontario east that 'the west' was made up of needy whiners, convinced English Canada it was nothing but a poor version of the US and gave French Canada pause to remember.

Second Worst PM - Brian Mulroney. A total American wannabe (a sycophantic trait he seems to have passed on to his son) he ensured that any national pride we might have built up over non-involvement in American misadventures was replaced with a demoralizing inferiority complex, and any thoughts of cooperation with our fellow citizens should be replaced by the greed necessary to compete with each other until we can all become losers. He began the 'deep integration' that is so swiftly eroding Canada's government by the people.

Third Worst - Pierre Trudeau. Invited us to watch him as he transformed the country. Trudeau seemed to resent both Anglophone and Francophone traditions, contributions and constituencies. He was likely the last kid chosen for any team or group so he grew up resenting us all. Taking advantage of the ennui and angst created by Diefenbaker, his drive for anarchy and chaos radicalized Canadian political debate, and set us one against the other.

Tied for Fourth - Paul Martin and Stephen Harper. (Though Harper has time in hand to prove his 'worseness'.) Both should be hanged for Treason. (Normally I don't believe in capital punishment , but...) Martin, a cowardly traitor, did most of his work behind closed doors. Harper, a pompous traitor does quite a bit openly. It is not that the United States is our enemy - Americans, too, are losing their country, rights and identity to the same imperialist tyrants as are we. But NAFTA the WTO treaties, the SPP and all similar agreements yield up sovereignty to a moneyed few who are not necessarily citizens or even people. Citizens' rights to redress wrongs have been moved out of the national court systems; citizens' rights to control their environment have been moved out of the national political arenas; citizens' rights to set standards such as product, working and wage standards, to unionize or not, to know what is in your food, to be treated fairly by an employer, to compensation for expropriation are now in the hands of arbitrators operating under and enforcing trade regulations rather than legislation.

Summary Diefenbaker made it emotionally possible, Trudeau set the political stage, Mulroney put the wheels in motion, Martin and Harper continue the process.

"A mari usque ad mare" will fade with the nation and be replaced with "Je me souviens" by those aging few who remember Canada as a proud, capable, caring and sovereign nation.

The Blame China Syndrome

A spate of apparent deficiencies in imports from China have made headlines, led to considerably hand-wringing among legislators and may bring on trade restrictions. But it is not China we need to hold accountable. The real problem has little to do with the quality of Chinese manufacturers or the integrity of Chinese regulators and almost everything to do with the nature of American importers, American corporate philosophies and American consumer demands.

Dysfunctional and dangerous goods are a plague we have brought on ourselves.

In opening their trading doors to the world, China's well-educated executives have been following the well-proven policy: “Give the customer what he wants.” The trouble is while those of us picking up pet food, choosing toys for our children and buying toothpaste think of ourselves as the customer, we are not China's customer. We are the customers of the importing companies. It is their orders China is filling.

China puts satellites into orbit, maintains a respectable nuclear arsenal, feeds close to 20% of the world's population and in less than half a century has built the second largest economy in the world. Most of the computer this is being written on was made in China and the odds are good much of yours was too, as were at least parts of the networks that are bringing this to you. They are safe, reliable and meet the exacting standards required by North American regulators, even the non-governmental ones at Underwriters' Labs.

So why are there problems with toys and pet food?

We North Americans are greedy and self-centered! To the point of scrimping on the two most dependent groups in our lives - our children and pets. So we buy from Wal-Mart because the prices are lower. The prices aren't lower because Wal-Mart chooses to take a hit. They are lower because Wal-Mart leans on their suppliers. The suppliers cut corners. Surprise, surprise. Does anyone really believe they're getting the same quality as their parents did?

Mattel's 2006 annual report speaks of “price increases and supply chain savings more than offset external cost pressures”. What was taken from the supply chain to get those savings?

If liability is to be assigned, check your sales receipt and the name on the box. To find the person ultimately responsible, look no further than your bathroom mirror.

Genesis as Prophecy

Fundamentalists claim the Book of Genesis is history, plain, simple and with an exact and accurate timeline. The more liberal in the Judeo-Christian community suggest a more allegorical approach to interpretation is appropriate. That even given Genesis as the 'Word of God', it was provided to followers in terms comprehensible to those without knowledge of telescopes, geothermal activity or climate.

What if they are both wrong?

What if Genesis is not history, but prediction?

That the entire planet could be Eden would have seemed far fetched a few thousand years before air travel, efficient and reliable global trade routes, and the myriad life-support and comfort-support technologies we take for granted today. But in today's world, barriers to a Utopian existence are primarily self-imposed.

If we re-think Genesis as prediction, an exercise that precludes literal interpretation, the early passages are interesting food for thought.

Genesis 1 - In the Beginning

Without debating too heavily against the fundamentalist interpretation, let us simple suggest an all-knowing Creator would not have provided an explanation of the origin of what we know as the universe based on genetics and quantum-physics to our agrarian ancestors. Interpreted as metaphor, Genesis 1 is decidedly accurate. From light as the beginning through planetary and solar formation, the beginning of life in the slippery stratas of clay, to the myriad species we know of today, the narrative holds.

There's a bit of an issue with humanity, stating first that men and women were created together (Gen 1: 27-28) and chapter two's more detailed interpretation suggesting a more misogynistic approach. However if we are able to widen our perspective and accept an interpretation of “let there be light” as the Big Bang, the simultaneous appearance of Adam and Eve representing early humankind is not a stretch.

Genesis 2,3 -The Warning

If we now accept the first chapter and a half as description without underlying references of Earth's metamorphoses to the point of human appearance, we can look at the rather dire warning of Genesis 2:17 as prediction.

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Note that examination of the tree is not forbidden, nor apparently would be harvesting the fruit to plant further similar trees. Only eating is outlawed.

Since the only use of the fruit of trees would have been eating, we may safely interpret the passage to suggest there is a certain body of knowledge which humanity may examine and understand but not utilize.

That body of knowledge is genetics.

Using the understanding of genetics and DNA we now have, rudimentary and incomplete as it is, enables us to “be as gods” as the serpent promised Eve.

Humanity's genetic creations comes from the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' and not from 'the tree of life'. While many have interpreted the pain of child birth as Eve's curse and the difficulties of farming as Adam's, it is more likely we ain't seen nothin' yet.

One can hardly call the vast plains of North America as we found them in the nineteenth century cursed. Many other parts of the global garden are as abundant.

But the as-yet-unknown effects of genetically engineered plants and other organisms released into the environment may well be destructive and cataclysmic on the level suggested by Genesis 3: 17-19.

Thanks to Monsanto and friends, serpents all.