When listening to the news the other day I heard that our oil-drenched Prime Minister is considering taking Canada out of the Kyoto agreement.
The consequence of doing that is shocking to a large part of the world, has a large impact on the environment and is further ruining Canada’s declining reputation as a country that is peace-loving and environmentally aware.
Considering that a former prime minister Lester Pearson won a Nobel Peace prize, Mr. Harper is leading this country down a very slippery slope of building a war-oriented army instead of a peace-keeping army. Combine that with his negative attitude towards the environment that is now affecting not only Canada but this world – it made me wonder how did we get here and where will it end up?
I think there is a pattern that started long before the industrial revolution when nobility and later very rich merchants ruled a big part of Europe. The rest of the people had the same value and were treated as cattle.
The industrial revolution changed that. People, including women and children, worked for very long hours under horrible conditions, but large amounts of people working in one place made it possible to communicate and form unions.
Union organizers were often shot and killed, but eventually won and conditions started to improve.
In the late 1860s or early 1870s child labour was introduced. There was a period of relative quiet and then a major depression hit the western world in the early 1900s followed by the First World War 1914 – 1918.
After all the physical damage caused by the war was repaired there was again a somewhat quiet time.
That the respect for life had not improved much was shown by a general who ordered his Canadian troops to battle only one day before the capitulation of the German army which was known to happen the next day. Hundreds of Canadian soldiers died needlessly that day and hundreds who suffered from shell shock were executed because they could not fight anymore.
The somewhat calm time after the First World War ended when again a big depression hit, known as the dirty thirties. That depression ended with the start of the Second World War in 1939 when all of a sudden there was a lot of money available to finance another war. That war ended in 1945 with more people dying, both soldiers and civilians and more damage than ever before to cities, roads, bridges and means of transportation and communication. Again there was a time of rebuilding but not a time of calm because of a steady threat of another war. That period was called the Cold War. What changed a lot after the Second World War was more people were educated than ever before.
This was not based on a respect for people, but for the necessity to have people who could work in a fast-advancing technology. There were other wars during and after the cold war including the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the Iraq War twice and recently the Afghanistan War.
I like to note that the disrespect for human dignity and value has again dwindled since the second Iraq War when civilian and soldier loss became equal to material loss under the title collateral damage. It is to be hoped that the pattern of depression followed by war will not repeat itself.
At this point in time, when the negative forces of the warming of our earth is already affecting many parts of this globe, another war to make the rich still richer is criminal. It is my sincere wish that the occupy movement will succeed using non-violent methods.
Bert deVink is a long-time Quesnel resident and Observer contributor.