The Pessimist

The town of Herouxville, Que., wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens and published a statement saying things like immigrants should expect to follow a few local rules like "No stoning women and women are allowed to drive cars". They also had a few things to say about wearing the veil ("don't"). This close minded bigotry managed to get the town onto the national news for a few days.

They seem to have over-stated their case for rolling back political correctness. There does seem to be too much special accomodation in dealing with multicultural populations. But, the criminal code already deals with out right offenses like honour killing, dowery murders, genital mutilation, punative rape, etc. Even general sexual equality resides in the Canadian Bill of Rights.

After some complaints and a bit of common sense, the town council has removed some of the more outrageous statements. But the core remains: fit in, or leave.

I've had my own diatribes on the burqa and cultural gender discrimination. I don't like the muslim headscarf. And there are a lot of other things that I don't like. But, not liking and not allowing are two different things. You don't use the cudgel of state power on things you don't like.

• Man boards jet at Heathrow wearing a niqab.
• British M.P. says veil is a barrier.

Here is my personal annoy-o-meter:

Things I don't like

• baseball caps worn backwards
• low riding baggy pants that show the elastic band on your underwear
• face piercings
• yarmulkes
• turbans
• hijabs
• straw hats and long grey beards

Things that make me uncomfortable:

• goth
• mohawk hair cuts (especially if combined with goth costumes)
• Marylin Manson
• extreme jewish get-ups (long beards, curls and really funny hats)

Things that I believe should be illegal in Canada:

• burqas
• niqabs
• baba kalsa giant yellow turbans with 2 foot swords and curly toed slippers
• flags that feature AK47s

The muslim headscarf should not be illegal. Nor should it be protected. If you can't get a job because you insist on dressing like a 14th century peasant, that's your problem. (Just like you shouldn't expect to get a job in an accountancy office if you're wearing 6 lip rings.)

According to the CBC survey, 68% of muslim women do not wear any head covering. They accept the Canadian assimilation model: first generation looks like an immigrant; second generation looks like a Canadian; third generation is a Canadian who takes pride in their heritage.

My Babusha and my wife's Nona were little old ladies from the old country who could not speak English and dressed in funny costumes. Their children spoke both old and new languages fluently and dressed in Canadian fashion. Their grandchildren (us, if you weren't following) don't speak the old language at all, but still like the pierogi's and fagioli.

If you want to wear your full ethnic costume and dance your traditional dances and eat your ethnic foods, that's great. But the place for that is your home, your church and the multi-cultural festival. I'll be there.

But I don't want to see you in court insisting that you should be able to go to work dressed that way. And if you are going to violate public safety by wearing a face covering disguise, then you should expect the police to take an interest in you.

Worst case scenario, global warming may cause one million deaths by the end of the century.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released it's latest report on Global warming. In it they conclude that it is 90% certain that human activities are causing global warming. This quote from out local paper caught my eye:

"It's not too late,'' said Australian scientist Nathaniel Bindoff, a co-author of the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued yesterday.

The worst can be prevented by acting quickly to curb greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

Another of the study's many co-authors, Kevin Trenberth, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, was more blunt:

The worst could mean more than one million dead and hundreds of billions of dollars in costs by 2100.

Now, I think the UN may be having an Austen Power's Dr. Evil moment. "One millliiion may die!"

A million? Don't they mean billion?

Hey, if the death toll from this Global warming thing can't be measured in the billions, who really cares? (Besides the polar bears.)

One million people die:

• of diarrhea every 6 months
• from smoking every 2 months
• every time there is a magnitude 7+ earthquake in a densely populated backwater area of Turkey or China
• of starvation every year in africa
• of genocide every time some african people look at their neighbours and decide they're being treated unfairly by them.

Don't we have more important things to worry about?

• Last century, 3 mass murderers directly or indirectly were each responsible for deaths in the 10's of millions (Mao, Stalin, Hitler). Many many others accounted for over one million each.
• Small pox killed 50 million North Americans (native peoples), the black death killed 75 million Europeans and Asians, influenza killed 25 million. The first two are ancient history, but the last one happened less than 100 years ago.
• A meteor could wipe out half to all of life on the planet.
• A well placed nuclear bomb could kill 20 million people in 1 second, any time now.

A million dead from Global warming. Who cares. Unless Mr. Trenberth mispoke or was misquoted, and really meant to say a billion, then I'm going to put on my shorts and enjoy the warmer weather.