The pride of a Toronto Star photographer

I lived in Mexico for 7 years, but it's great to be here with Star photographer Carlos Osorio. Born in El Salvador, Carlos came to Canada when he was little and had never been to Mexico City. His only impressions of this country came from  the crowded, dusty streets of Juarez, where we went on a story a few years ago. That is the image of Mexico of most people: the Border. Mexicans and others trying to get across and the privileged North trying to stop them. Poverty, joblessness and desperation.

All those things exist in Mexico. But it is also a great country blessed with a capital that has been a literary, artistic, political, academic and religious beacon to Latin America for centuries. I would argue Mexico City is the capital of Latin America, no matter what Buenas Aires or other cities might claim. For Carlos, being here even on a terrible story like swine flu, has been an eye-opener to the beauty, even majesty, of a great Latin American city. "It feels so full of life, the noise, the churches, the smells, the people," he says. "It's great. I  love it - I guess for me it's in the blood."

Carlos gets to see the magnificence of the Latin American culture he shares. He's proud - and excited as a photographer. The light alone is amazing; he should see Havana.

It's sad fallout from cutbacks in the media (to cite one reason) there are no longer Canadian bureaus here. The news is so much richer than the occasional health catastrophe or earthquake. We think of Mexico then, or when we read about farmworkers coming to Canada. Or when we are part of the more than a million tourists who travel here every year. Such a pity. 

Oh dear. They say (in Spanish) if the dust of Mexico gets into your heart (or your soul, I don't remember), you are a prisoner for life. I guess that's me. I hadn't realized how much I yearned for the light, the birdsong, the gardens and, most of all, the people. Can I go home again?

* * *

Mexico City is in lockdown for swine flu and tomorrow will be double lockdown because it's the May 1st International Workers Day holiday. So anything that is open today won't be tomorrow. And Tuesday is May 5. Cinco de Mayo. That's the day Mexican troops beat the French army in 1862 in Puebla.

Setting up interviews is so much fun. When I lived here I worked out how many holidays Mexican have and it's something like double those of dour Canada. Mexicans know how to live.

Hmmm, Does Michael Ignatieff's trip to D.C. mean the PM is out-of-step where it counts?

A seismic shift shouldn't be seen in Michael Ignatieff's jaunt to Washington today. An opposition leader's visit to the modern equivalent of Rome isn't a big deal in Washington's busy grand scheme. Opposition leaders have met with sitting presidents (Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan) and Ignatieff could even land an invite for that special meeting at some point.

Still, PM Stephen Harper's stock is not high in certain Washington circles.  With another Summit of the Americas behind us, the verdict by  Washington-based Public Citizen's Trade Watch is our PM stands alone - and out-of-date - in policies on trade initiatives in the Americas. In the past, Trade Watch has been highly critical of former president George W. Bush for his administration's Americas policy. But they've given high grades - so far at least - to President Barack Obama for his disinclination to push for the previously touted "Free Trade Agreement of the Americas." As Trade Watch noted, "happily missing" this time (in Trinidad & Tobabgo) was all the talk of hemispheric free trade and the "Washington Consensus". Lori Wallach, director of Trade Watch says there is a new sentiment among U.S. lawmakers trade agreements haven't benefited the U.S., a view long felt in many countries. Wallach argues: "Leaders throughout the hemisphere face broad public demand for real change in trade and economic policy and some have begun creating new approaches. Others, like Obama, have committed to do so."

She says events show neo-liberal policies are discredited in the Americas, and the world. There was no talk of the FTAA last week, plus Obama's administration has shown a new approach to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and some loosening on Cuba. (The U.S. is still far from Canada's lead in recognizing and dealing with Cuba, but that will come with time.) Trade Watch offers research showing Obama is in step with polls showing Americans don't believe free trade has been a positive force.

Meanwhile, Canada is the only country to have a free-trade agreement with Colombia and the Harper government hasn't distanced itself from the FTAA model so closely associated with Corporate America and U.S. presidents going back to Reagan.

There is a still general view in many Canadian circles NAFTA has been a real boon to the economy (or was pre-recession) but studies on everything from labour to oil by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests that's a false premise.

The PMO may have hired a couple of former White House spokespeople to boost Canada's image in the U.S. However, being out-of-the-loop with thinking can only be a deterrent.

* * *

Another Latin American offering for your listening pleasure: La Tropa vallenata. (It's that kind of week for me.) "Los Caminos de la Vida" is great road music, especially in northern Colombian where this band has its roots.

Newsflash: Afghan husbands stripped of rights, forced to have marital sex

While decrying the new law discriminating against Afghan husbands, Canadian officials are essentially taking a wait-and-see attitude. The new law legalizes marital rape and forbids husbands from leaving the house without the consent of their wives. Penalties for disobedience are harsh. Meanwhile, supporters of the law argue it applies only to the country's minority Shi'ite Muslim population - not to all men.

What if?

What if men had lost their rights, instead of women in the legislation recently signed by President Harmid Karzai? Close ally of the U.S. and Canada Karzai? Last week, men pelted demonstrating women with stones in Kabul, calling them "dogs," although it should be noted a few men marched with the women.

Within Afghanstan, clerics defend the law while, internationally, officials in countries like Canada express "deep concern" but little else.  It's unthinkable men would face such a fate - or that the rest of the world would maintain a helpless pose as women courageously marched.

Take any story on what's happening to women in Afghanistan and switch the word "women" to "men. See how bizarre it is?

* * *

Humanitarian of the week award: Karlheinz Schreiber

The German arms dealer this week told the public inquiry into his business dealings with former PM Brian Mulroney he lobbied for a light-armoured vehicle plant in Nova Scotia two decades ago in order to save lives. "I am frustrated today because this is the reason why our soldiers are (being) killed in Afghanistan," said Schreiber (in an AFP photo at right). 

 "It's not about a few bucks in commission. This is about lives."

* * *

 

 

On a glorious day with promise of a great Saturday ahead, Decoder ace contributor Lynne shares springtime images of the first calf of the year at Riverdale Farm in Toronto.

* * *

Oh, yeah, and Joe the Plumber is back.

Reflections from Comrade Fidel

Toronto Star Photos

Castro in Havana in 1998

 Fidel Castro still muses publicly about world events and, this time, it's Fidel on Barack Obama. It's a strange one, part complimentary ("obvious good health, agile mind operating like a heavy machine"), part criticism of NATO and part a news summary of the recent Obama itinerary. One imagines Castro stretched out in his jammies dictating his world view or, more likely, authorizing writeups from his press corps. Oh, what foe old age.

* * * 

More for Latin America/Caribbean buffs: The People's Summit will be held simultaneously with the V Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, April 16-18. The People's Summit looks at labour, environmental and social issues, while politicians gather to come up with more of the policies that have been so successful in the Americas. Not.

* * *

Why the Rush on Free Trade with Colombia? Despite an all-party report last fall advising a human rights review before free trade with Colombia, Parliament quietly ratified the agreement. As Rick Arnold, director of the human rights group Common Frontiers, asks about Colombian free trade in a letter to his MP: Why?

* * *

Fujimori goes up the river: Earlier this week, former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for mass murder for the activities of his death squads. Unlike Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Fujimori, 70,  didn't expire soon enough. His lawyers will appeal.

I remember an interview with Fujimori in the presidential palace in which he boasted about a different (distinto) type of democracy in his Peru. I'll say.

* * *

Happy Easter

Barack Obama, K Street lobbyists and the grab for Mexican oil

Canadian unions may have found an ally in their fight to stop the endless rush to privatization in the Americas: Barack Obama.

This particular battle involves the significant issue of energy. Over the past week, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) sponsored a trip to Mexico by two trade lawyers to lend support to efforts to stop the privatization of the national oil company, PEMEX.

Lawyers Stephen Shrybman and Hugo Neal-Leri, who've done substantial work for both unions, spoke at various events in Mexico City and Villahermosa (in the oil state of Tabasco) and met with opposition party politicians and workers from small independent unions. It was a trip to offer moral support. Rick Arnold, from the advocacy group Common Frontiers (another trip sponsor), calls what happens to PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos) "a litmus test" for Latin America.  His worst-case scenario would be the entire Americas being controlled by a handful of powerful energy companies.

Mexico has been a holdout. It would difficult to find a prouder moment in recent Mexican history than when President Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the oil companies in 1938, kicking out interests including Rockefeller's Standard Oil. U.S. trade negotiators, with their energy working groups, have tried to reverse that decision since free trade talks began in the 1980s. Remember, the genesis of free trade lay with Corporate America, and not with politicians like Ronald Reagan or Brian Mulroney.

When Canada agreed to NAFTA clauses ensuring proportional energy sharing even in times of shortage, Mexico said, "No, thanks."

Now, it looks as if PEMEX could fall. It's not that Mexico has such a sweet deal over Canada; the country still imports gasoline for its citizens in spite of being the world's sixth largest producer of crude. Still, the symbol of PEMEX is important.

President Felipe Calderón is pushing Congress for what his PAN party calls "minor" privatization, a move opponents see as a vast sell-off. It means that 37 of 41 divisions would be open to outside contracting to companies such as Halliburton. (Yes, that Halliburton. ) The Washington-based think-tank Council on Hemispheric Affairs has published a background report on the situation.

Arnold says the ongoing debate in the Mexican Congress is critical for the battle against privatization in South America, notably Venezuela and Bolivia. He argues his group is not against trade but opposes NAFTA because, in his view, it ignores social and labour concerns. A recent document published by Common Frontiers offers further insight and sets up Democratic candidate Barack Obama as a potential ally. The report opens with a statement from his recent policy paper:

In Mexico, as in the U.S. and Canada, citizens and democrats wish to “close the revolving door between the executive branch and K street (corporate) lobbying …”. Mexicans are currently mobilizing to stop the deeply un-democratic practice of lobbyists [writing] national policies.

From Barack Obama’s Blueprint for Change

It would be be wise to remember that, during another presidential race, the major unions in the United States believed they could count on another Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton. They thought he would join them in opposing NAFTA but, despite hints to the contrary, he waited until after Labour Day in 1992 to announce his support for the deal.

Now Democratric presidential candidate Obama is looking good. He doesn't oppose NAFTA (apparently not any longer) but it was the clout of corporate lobbyists that gave us the trade deals in the first place. Taking on the K-Street lobbyists could define an Obama presidency. Their business includes the energy industry advocates who push U.S. President George W. Bush to open up national parks to drilling and water down environmental legislation. They currently have their sights set on PEMEX. The lobbying industry could be seen as the fourth pillar of the U.S. political system - and arguably the most powerful. Closing that "revolving door" will be no easy task for Obama - if he attempts it.

I'll be lining up to see Paul Gross and Passchendaele

Promotional Photo/Star Files

Paul Gross in scene from Passechendaele

It was great news this week that Passchendaele, the film written, produced and directed by Paul Gross, will open the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September. The Canadian actor also stars, playing his grandfather, Sgt. Michael Dunne from the Canadian Corps, in his film about the third battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, in the rain and muck of Belgium in the autumn of 1917. In The Great War, Passchendaele was another symbol of the growing reputation of Canadians as elite fighters, but as our young country came of age there was an awful price. By the capture of the town of Passchendaele in early November, the Canadian casualty count stood at 15,654. Star movie critic Peter Howell reports Gross as saying, "Passchendaele took longer to make than the First World War to fight."

He was joking, perhaps, but it sounded as if he were obsessed by the project, thinking about making the movie for more than a decade. He could not help but understand the horror of the place from his many conversations with his grandfather. As the old man lay dying, he told Gross ... ah, but this is his story to tell and best left to the filmmaker.

Like so many other Canadians, it feels as if I, too, have been waiting my whole life for this film. (We, too, have our own family war wounds.) I brooded endlessly over films like Australia's Gallipoli, loving it, hating it and raging at the inability of Canadians to tell our own stories — especially ones revealing what it was like to be a colonized country in time of war. That's not necessarily a phenomenon restricted to the past, however that's another topic. Today, I simply wish to acknowledge what Paul Gross has done and underscore how long we've been waiting. Not that Slings and Arrows wasn't terrific (in my opinion), but Passchendaele has the potential to be a touchstone for us all.

No pressure there.

I once saw a little Australian B-flick called Emerald City, not great, but so Canadian in its story about two writers desperate to make a movie about the experience of aboriginal peoples in their country. One of the guys — the slick one with the ready patter —  goes to the States to raise money and comes back all a-twitter because he's got funding — with only a few teensy changes. Like the guy is no longer an Aborigine, but  American Black, and the setting is no longer the Australian Outback but the American Deep South.

You get the picture.

His partner quits the project, but not before delivering a speech:

"We need to feel important enough to have fiction written about us. Otherwise, we will grow up thinking real life is something that happened to somebody else, and in accents other than our own."

Those lines from Emerald City have always stayed with me.

I hardly think they will apply to long-awaited Passchendaele.