Independance Day
It's about noon on Monday. Today is Independence Day in Ghana, so it's a holiday. Forty-nine years!!! We watched the ceremonies in Accra on TV this morning and they were pretty impressive. The first part was largely a military parade, with all brass bands and different units marching. What was most striking about it was the similarities between that and military parades in Canada, in their Britishness. It's amazing to think that one small island managed to spread its influence so far. Quite a legacy.
There was also some interesting traditional dancing and drumming, which was pretty neat, as well as a good speech by the president. All in all, it was good to watch, although it made me a bit homesick. How long til Canada Day?
On a totally separate note, yesterday, I read an article on the Globe and Mail website about how Canada is almost alone in supporting Guantanamo. Well, I didn't read all of it, just the first few lines, because my time ran out. But in the first two lines, the author called it a gulag twice. I guess any basic historical knowledge isn't necessary to become a journalist these days. What a moron. The gulag was a network of thousands of camps holding millions of people, most of whom guilty of no more than a wayward comment or simply belonging to the wrong class or ethnicity. Guantanamo houses approximately 500 detainees, mostly from Afghanistan. While I do not doubt that some innocent men have been kept there, which is always a travesty, the overwhelming majority were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan. These are not political prisoners-- they are terrorists. They fight without uniforms or regard for innocent life. To compare them to the millions who suffered in the gulag is ridiculous and an insult to their memory. It is also lazy journalism. Take a history course, or better yet, read Gulag by Anne Applebaum, before you compare a camp for 500 terrorists to a network of thousands of camps holding millions of people in a totalitarian society. Guantanamo isn't Club Med, but its guests aren't exactly candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.
There was also some interesting traditional dancing and drumming, which was pretty neat, as well as a good speech by the president. All in all, it was good to watch, although it made me a bit homesick. How long til Canada Day?
On a totally separate note, yesterday, I read an article on the Globe and Mail website about how Canada is almost alone in supporting Guantanamo. Well, I didn't read all of it, just the first few lines, because my time ran out. But in the first two lines, the author called it a gulag twice. I guess any basic historical knowledge isn't necessary to become a journalist these days. What a moron. The gulag was a network of thousands of camps holding millions of people, most of whom guilty of no more than a wayward comment or simply belonging to the wrong class or ethnicity. Guantanamo houses approximately 500 detainees, mostly from Afghanistan. While I do not doubt that some innocent men have been kept there, which is always a travesty, the overwhelming majority were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan. These are not political prisoners-- they are terrorists. They fight without uniforms or regard for innocent life. To compare them to the millions who suffered in the gulag is ridiculous and an insult to their memory. It is also lazy journalism. Take a history course, or better yet, read Gulag by Anne Applebaum, before you compare a camp for 500 terrorists to a network of thousands of camps holding millions of people in a totalitarian society. Guantanamo isn't Club Med, but its guests aren't exactly candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.
posted by Tony at 5:33 p.m.
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