Spain and International Law

Well Spain is doing it again, trying to make their court system to enforce international law. Spain in the past has charged former dictators from other countries, Pinochet is an example. Pinochet was never put on trial for the crimes that were done during his time in power, the British decided that he was too old and sick to be put on trial. This time the Spanish government is putting some of the current Rwandan government officials on trial, over their actions after the genocide had occurred.
I find it interesting that they will charge the people who stopped the genocide and not as well charge the people who did the genocide. It appears like they only care when the actions go against their citizens. Also the Spanish were not even in Rwanda during the civil war and genocide, this begs the question could people in Rwanda sue the Spanish government over their lack of action in Rwanda. Or even better a western country charge them with crimes, just like what they are doing now.
This whole issue could be diluted if there was an international court of justice. Which would be able to look at these conflicts without one government charging another one. It would hopefully try to take the politics out of the situation. This court of course was undermined by the Lovely government of George 'W' Bush. One of the many good legacies of that administration.

Super Tuesday and other American Stuff: Part Two

Well my grand plan was to talk about the results of Super Tuesday on the primary season, but not all of the information that I want has been released. I will talk about Super Tuesday when it does come out. Hopefully by the end of the week.
I have been looking at some of the exit polling for the primary and have found some things interesting, I will only mention them now and talk about them at length at a later time. Hilary appears to have support of the poorer, less educated and people who are struggling. Obama has the support of the more Conservative voters. Both of these are important groups that they seem to be splitting. It also looks like the Republicans are going to be voting in McCain. I know that it is not set in stone but it looks like he might be able to do it.

There were also huge storms in the American South that caused many loss of life and damage. I know I have talked about the crazy weather that has happened this winter before. The tornadoes happening in February is quite shocking. This is not tornado season at all, which i was always scared of a child. Does that mean that the tornado season has expanded into the winter, is this a one time thing or is it going to happen from now on??

Public Transit (oh what fun)

Well I found out some fun and exciting news in the past few days, both about public transportation. Both are positive in my view, but one is not positive to public transportation. The first is about the new expansion of the Grand River Transit into the countryside. The other is about the O-train that was stopped and now the blame is going around. There is also a possible transit strike as well.

So the positive story is about the proposed expansion of bus service in the Waterloo Region. This expansion will affect the whole region. Grand River Transit will be having a trial bus service to Elmira this fall. This will of course be a trail program which would only run during the rush hours, going from Conestoga Mall to Elmira with a stop in St. Jacobs. This is truly new idea for the Region of Waterloo to have bus service to the outer communities. This bus may not make a lot of money and have the ridership to keep it in service. On the other hand the GRT is pushing the envelope of public transit. There has been the idea floated around that the new Rapid transit system would be extended to along the same route at some time. This could be a way for the GRT to build up ridership so when it goes into place there is already ridership. That is what is happening with the Ixpress, increase ridership along the route with out putting in a lot of capital of a whole system. The Region is currently looking into their options for a rapid transit system. They are looking at the routes and the type of technology, I do not know too much about the route but they should go with LRT. I hope by the end of this year they will announce what their final decision will be.

The other Public transit issue is with O-train, one of my favorite topics ever. What a terrible example of what you should do with public transit, ie it is bad, really bad. The whole process is being controlled by the politicians who are trying to one up each other, and that's not a good thing. So the new news about the issues is that the current environmental minister is under an probe about how he could have influenced the municipal election.
To give some background on the issue the O-train is LRT located in the Nations capital. It was a pilot program that did go from nowhere to nowhere, but there were more riders than they expected. So the former city council voted in favour of putting the system in place with expanded route and service. They signed a contract and were going to start it but then the municipal election occurred. This is when Mr. Baird comes in, he was asked by one of the people running in the election to with hold the money the federal government was going to spend on the system. This caused the candidate that was for the system to lose the election, which caused the system to loose a vote after the election.
If you thought it was that simple you are wrong, it is fairly complicated. Mr. Baird had no legal write to do the actions that he did, and some believe he did to get back at the former mayor who ran against Mr. Baird many times. The city had already signed a contract so they are now facing lawsuits from the companies that have signed the contracts, they want their money. The LRT was voted on twice after the election, it passed once then lost the second. The first vote was conducted when one of the members of council was on vacation, so it was done again after the person came back. Also the city of Ottawa was the only city that had their money with held, there was 10 other projects in place that did not have their money with held or reviewed. Only Ottawa had this happen to them.
The positive point of the story is that the federal government is getting in trouble for not supporting a transit program. I hope this will cause the government to support even more programs. It will also hurt the governments environmental message, because they destroyed a major advancement for the Ottawa transit system. That will hopefully change their attitude and do more for the environment.

There is also a threat of a strike in the Waterloo Region by the transit workers. If you were planning on taking your significant other to some where on Valentines day by bus, be careful the buses may not be running. So yes even though there are good situations in the public transit they can all be over shadowed by politicians who only look out for themselves.

Canadians View of Themselves on the World Stage

This post will tie in some of my thoughts from different posts. These thoughts might have not be stated, but I was thinking about them while writing. I personally think that Canada, and western countries can do a whole lot more to change the world for the better. I feel that currently we are sitting on our hands to scared to make real change or put pressure on others to do so.

I was reading the Globe and Mail and found a very interesting article. It was about a poll about how Canadians view themselves in the world. I think we have a two rosy view about how we influence the world. Yes we are more positive that our southern neighbour but we are not the same as some European Nations. The poll also said that we think that we have grown stronger on the political stage in the last 20 years, something that I disagree with. But I do agree with the almost 90% that says we can do more to strengthen our position.

To say that we are a positive influence on the world would be correct but to say that we are the best people like this I would disagree. When was the last time that our forces went on UN peacekeeping missions. We gave up the easiest one in Cyprus being replaced by other nations, this has been stated by some as one of the safest peacekeeping jobs. Look at our stance at the recent climate change conference, not matter what side you are on the Canada stance did not help. The Canadian government did not try to make a final decision possible, was just on the side that we all have to agree. That is very helpful. The European Union will pass us as the most positive influence in the world, if they have not already. There are many nations in the EU which give more money as aid to developing countries that we do. Some have even met the .7% of GDP goal that the UN had put forward many years ago.

Over the last 20 years we have had some positive and negative actions accounted to our position in the world. The positives in our view out way the negatives which makes us feel great on the inside, when we should look closer at them.

One of the major positive things we do is Peacekeeping, it is also one of the negatives as well. Many people have heard of Rwanda where we had a few peacekeepers who would not leave during the civil war there. but when you look at the situation, why was there only a few people there? Why did we not as a country rise up and say that we are going to send more troops to protect the people, even replace the Belgian troops when the left. To be honest it was a few good Canadians, not us as a whole. There was also Bosnia where we were leading the UN peacekeepers, and did we try to protect the Bosnians, to a certain extent. The UN troops did not go out of their way to try to bring peace to the situation. Then their is Somalia where Canadian troops did inappropriate things, the peacekeeping mission did leave before the conflict was solved as well. Yes we have in the past put a lot of peacekeepers around the world, but we should not think that we are special because of that.

Another issue that I think has destroyed Canada's stance over the last 20 years is when the world gets together to talk what does Canada do. These talks include climate change, free trade, AIDS. Canada to my knowledge does not take a non western point of view at any of these conferences. We do not have the will to say well this is our point of view how about we try to find a broader common good. We look at just our own good a lot of the time. Have we forgiven the debt of any country recently, with out any strings attached? Have we sponsored any major vaccines with any of the major diseases? Have we stated that this is what we believe but lets negotiate to find a solution that we all can agree with.

This poll was done to get Canadians talking about our position in the world. 88% of the people polled believe that Canada can strengthen our influence around the world. I think we should get on that write away. We could do it through the political process, or giving with our own money. I ask myself these questions all the time. When was the last time that I have gave money to a charity?? How often do I look past each of those donation boxes at stores when I have spare change. Do I donate money because I can, or because I feel like I have to. My goal at the moment is to donate any of my spare change that is not a Loonie or a Quarter because I need those to do wash when ever I see one of those boxes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080205.wworldpoll05/BNStory/National/home