"Harmonization ?"
Monday, November 26 2001
Posted by brockp

Holy smokes ! The blog hasn't been new since baseball season was still underway...I guess I haven't felt too much like ranting in public of late. Well, maybe I've been stewing. There are just so many fucked up things happenning in the world now that I've hardly felt like adding more complaining.

I have been back to the states a couple times since the "world changed" and have to report that things are definitely different. I'm kind of glad baseball season has ended (and the yanks didn't win !) because it was getting pretty hard to stomach God Bless America being sung every seventh inning stretch, complete with patriotic images and trained bald eagles. For you Americans reading, imagine watching a hockey game on tv (some Americans actually do watch hockey) and having to sit through O Canada again before the third period of every game complete with images of maple leafs and beavers and what have you. Sound ridiculous ? You bet. My point exactly.

I'll stop there because the argument begins in earnest at that point and I do not wish to begin that one right now.

I do wish to make a couple of comments about a term I heard on a CBC show called Counter Spin last night - harmonization. The term seems to be a non-threatening way to describe the notion of erasing the border between the US and Canada in the name of free trade. More free trade. I think a more relevant word is "imperialism". Imperialism is defined in my dictionary as "the policy. practise, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation esp. by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas." I don't really want to go too deeply into that argument here. I do wish to answer a question put repeatedly to the audience by one of the pro-globalisation economists on the panel last night though. His question was, "Why is everyone so afraid of the Americans ? What is so bad about them ? They are more or less like us..."

Obviously I am only speaking for myself here. I am not afraid of Americans, but I am sometimes frightened by their masses. And many Canadians. I am frightened by the level of ignorance regarding US (and Canadian) foreign policy among the masses. I have heard a bunch of times people saying things like, "America has done nothing but provide shelter and aid to foreigners - what did we do to deserve this, etc." I am not going to argue that point either, because the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming and not too hard to find, if you are the least bit curious. I am also frightened by statements made by members of the audience last night which were plainly racist, to the obliviousness of the speakers. As far as I am concerned, unless you are of aboriginal descent, you are from somewhere else. You are descended from immigrants. It frightens me to hear that people do not remember this.

So as regards "harmonization", economic or otherwise, I answer that I am afraid of the destructive power of rampant ignorance, regardless of which side of the border it is on. I am also afraid of apparently morally bankrupt powers which would intentionally seek to feed such ignorance with propaganda to serve their own interests.

Have Not Been The Same
Tuesday, November 6 2001
Posted by brockp

Remember that song from the late eighties by Slow ? Well there is a new book out now by the same name which chronicles Canadian music of that era. Michael Barclay, Ian A.D.Jack, and Jason Schneider are the co-authors and ECW Press is the publisher. Ian interviewed me over email for the book this past spring so I got to finally say my piece about the Doughboys (though I suppose none of that made it into the book). At any rate it should be an interesting read regardless. The complete title is: Have Not Been The Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995 and you can find out more in various places including here.