Shifty and Twitchy

Shifty and Twitchy

By John Taylor; 2006 September 24

Yesterday I traveled with fellow LSA members Ron and Fran to Forest Hill for an inter-cluster meeting. Ron as always took every side road available and gave Fran and me a beautiful tour of the back roads of Ontario. At my request we ventured into my alma mater, Guelph University, which I had not seen for decades; I was shocked at the expansion and development going on there and all around. Every square inch of what used to be a lovely, green campus is now covered in buildings, outbuildings and out outbuildings. The entire road of Highway Six from the school to Highway 401, formerly gently rolling farmer's fields is now nothing but box stores, mini-malls and McMansions as far as the eye can see. Progress.

Ron continued to explore his favorite topic, friends and acquaintances, for most of the way. I could have recorded our discussion and put it directly into the Haldimand Assembly's archives; afterwards I swear that I had heard the name of every non-Baha'i to have moved in or out of Dunnville or in or out of the Baha'i Faith for the past two decades. At one point a name escaped him. I teased him saying, "What, there is a person in the world whose name you do not know?" He can even trace the intricacies of cousins and extended family members, plus the always difficult problem women in serial marriages, whose last name changes as often as the seasons. If I could remember ideas and thinkers with the facility that he has for faces and names I would be a major philosopher.

One snippet of information picked up from his experience as a volunteer at the Chamber of Commerce has relevancy for me, as a homeowner. Our little town since we moved here has gotten a Food Basics and a larger Canadian Tire. At the moment an old factory is being torn down, soon to become a No Frills Superstore; plus, Wal-Mart just got approval to put in a huge store right behind the Canadian Tire Store. The question is, why? This town is too small for such major retail outlets. The Chamber of Commerce is all for this increase in activity, but the Business Improvement Area, representing downtown shops, is vehemently opposed. Ron commented:

"In my time in the office I hear bits and pieces. I overheard a bigwig say to his friend that there is a reason the big boys are marching in here. They must know something we do not. Which means almost for sure that the big direct superhighway from Toronto to Buffalo must be about to go forward."

That is great news, soon our quiet little burg will be just like Guelph and surroundings, nothing but box stores, mini-malls and McMansions laid out to every horizon, with hardly a tree or open space in sight. And this is how these things are planned: everything kept a dark secret until the process is in motion and it is too late. If word should ever get out, of course, there would be an orgy of speculation and land prices would shoot through the roof. That is why planning development is out of the question. Open discussion makes it expensive for the big boys to finance sprawl.

When I got home I found another fait accompli that had happened without my knowledge or consent. Marie and the kids had gone out and in my absence bought a grey bunny, which they named "Twitchy," and a cage. Tomaso insisted that I close my eyes as soon as I entered and he guided me into the bedroom to see the surprise. I opened my eyes and really was surprised this time. "We have had him four hours and these have been the best four hours of my life!" He declared. I suggested that old Twitchy might like to go out and play on the road. They stood between me and Twitchy and pounded me with their fists. They requested a film about bunnies to show him, and settled on "The Bunny's Picnic," a Jim Henson puppet production. Twitchy, presumably, was duly edified. I was reduced to grumbling helplessly, with the same impotent disapproval I got driving by Guelph and its environs. Twitchy indeed. He should be called Shifty.

Tomaso was so excited that night that he could not sleep alone, he crawled into our bed and kicked me in the face most of the night. So instead of writing a report on the actual content of the Cluster Conference, I slept most of this morning. Maybe tomorrow. Meantime, here is something to think about.

At a news conference <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092100829.html> a reporter asked the President of Iran through a translator:

"In your remarks, you have mentioned that the leaders and presidents of the world should turn to justice and enforce justice. You are the president of Iran and you have the opportunity to enforce justice. Reports coming from Iran seem to indicate that student movements are being repressed, that justice is not being served, as far as the followers of the Baha'i faith, as well as for women, who object to the Islamic laws that discriminate against them. And this justice that you speak of in the political realm does not exist. So why are (you) against justice?"

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In the meeting we had with the Foreign Press Council last night, it seemed to me that this was the main question on the mind of many people. I want to give you two figures. There are about 219 million people in the United States and in Iran we have about 68 million people.

(jet: I checked up on his figure for the US population in my atlas. Ahmadnejad seems to have transposed his digits, for in 2003 there were 291 million souls in the US.)

Now, there are about 3 million prisoners in the U.S. There are about 130,000 -- there are exactly 130,000 prisoners in Iran, 90 percent of whom are illicit drug traffickers who have been arrested in direct armed conflict with our security forces, who were trying to prevent the transit of drugs from Iran into Europe and the United States. Now, let's find out, and I think you should, what the composition of the backgrounds of prisoners in the United States is. I asked this question yesterday, but nobody had an answer.

Now, let's see, a high percent of American people are in prison, whereas only 0.2 percent of the Iranian population is in prison. Let's just put these figures in proportion now.

jet: Assuming his other figures are correct that would make over one percent of the population in the US currently being held in prison, five times higher than in Iran (higher in fact than any other country except South Africa). The other red herring, that 90 percent of Iranian prisoners are there for drug crimes, probably also applies to American incarceration.

You know, I like to speak of law as a framework. If you violate a traffic regulation, you will be governed (ph) by law. If not, there will be no rule of law. Now, we do have law in our country. We have a judiciary system. And, in fact, our courts are quite independent because the president does not have the right by law to interfere in the judgments of the judiciary. It therefore represents an independent power, an independent branch of government. We have a judiciary, we have lawyers, we have judges, we have trials. There are violations under law. Now, let me just clarify what the political situation in Iran is and for you to understand better.

There is a newspaper in Iran that is affiliated with the government and it's a voice, a podium for government position. Three months ago they had a violation under law and they were shut down. The president could not do anything. Now, I mean, what happened there is really a concept of freedom, a dimension of freedom that we must examine, because if we are to allow insults to happen, if we allow violations of law to happen, then we are acting against justice, we're allowing those with power to tell others what to do.

The courts are set up to defend the rights of the people. A citizen might raise a complaint against me. The judge must consider and examine that and they might give a sentence against me and force me to leave office. This, to me, is a power given to our courts and is a dimension of freedom, it is a dimension of democracy that we've been attained. Now, let us not forget that there is a possibility of failing to carry out law completely (ph) everywhere. It's in our country as well. Sometimes an enforcement official may not carry out his duties in the right way. But we are all involved, we are all responsible, we have to tell people not to do that, we have to make our efforts.

And everywhere in the world, when you look, such things do happen, and in Iran, too. But we believe that the freedom that we enjoy in Iran and the kind of justice we enjoy in Iran today is, sort of, self-grown, home-grown, and we made every effort to get to where we are, and we hope you respect that.