[BRIEF NOTE] This is what they call "missing the point"

From The Independent, David McKittrick's article "IRA offered to shoot killers of McCartney":

The saga of the killing of the Belfast man Robert McCartney has taken another extraordinary turn with an IRA announcement that it was prepared to shoot those involved.

The terrorist organisation said it had made an offer to Mr McCartney's relatives to shoot up to four people, but the family had made it clear it did not want "physical action".

The shocked political reaction to the revelation included descriptions of it as barbaric, sick, obscene and desperate.

The IRA statement did not specify whether the word "shoot" meant to murder or merely wound the four men, but according to a republican source the IRA was prepared to kill them.

Mr McCartney was stabbed in a Belfast back street on 30 January after a Sunday night brawl involving both IRA and Sinn Fein members in a city centre pub.

The family's campaign for justice has spurred both the IRA and Sinn Fein into actions to limit the damage being inflicted on them by the killing and its aftermath. But yesterday's offer was seen as another sign that the IRA is in turmoil and is making a series of ill-advised steps. The idea of killing - or even wounding - four men, three of them IRA members, is seen as remarkable. Such a bloodbath would answer the accusation that the IRA is involved in a cover-up to protect its people. But the notion of an organisation, which has been on a declared ceasefire since 1997, confirming that it had offered to carry out such crimes in such a public way was received with something close to disbelief.

If this is the IRA's version of benevolent behaviour, um.

UPDATE (12:37 PM) : fripper points out a contrarian article from the Irish Post.

People are undoubtedly angry about the IRA in the Short Strand area of Belfast - but it's not anger at the intimidation of witnesses who might finger those who killed Robert McCartney at a city centre bar on January 30. Far from it.

The anger is directed at the IRA for what many see as its expulsion of a senior member after he was, in their view, wrongly accused of being involved. Resignations from Sinn Féin and the IRA are expected as a result.

[. . .]

Politicians lecturing the 3,000 inhabitants of the small Catholic enclave in east Belfast about their civic duty, as well as those reporting on events, are singing from a very similar hymn sheet. The tune is one that people in the Short Strand reject as both inaccurate and unfair.

They say they do not recognise the official account, that they live under the oppressive yoke of the IRA, and one ‘rogue' unit in particular, which has imposed a rule of fear since the ceasefire. Accounts of ‘IRA godfathers' and ‘gangs' causing people to cower are treated with derision locally.

[BRIEF NOTE] International Women's Day

Over at the Head Heeb, Danny has a brief post on International Women's Day and its growing importance in Israel.

Growing up, I never heard anything special about the 8th of March. So, I was surprised when yesterday, various of my co-workers from ex-Communist Europe--one Bosnian, one Polish, one Ukrainian--remarked on the fact that they couldn't get used to how International Women's Day was such a non-event in Canada. But, one noted in a lull in the conversation, in recent years CBC Radio had begun to mention that fact on its morning news roundups.

Will it take off in Canada? Wait a decade and find out.

[BRIEF NOTE] Poisoned Chalices and All That

I would have linked to optimussven's post on the possible malign consequences of the success of the Bush Administration's policy on the Middle East earlier, but I'd unjustly forgotten.

[BRIEF NOTE] How Not to Secure Farm Aid

This morning, I listened bemused as Andy Barrie of CBC Radio 1's Metro Morning conducted a somewhat condescending sneering interview with Randy Hillier, president of the Lanark Landowners Association and leader of a massive protest of farmers at Queen's Park.

Group leader Randy Hillier, of the Lanark Landowners Association, expects busloads of protestors and 500 to 600 tractors to converge on Queen's Park, starting at 9 a.m., for a 1 p.m. rally.

The organization was formed by Hillier about a year ago, in response to what some farmers considered weak representation by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. It is fighting what it calls "legalized theft through excessive regulations and over-legislation" of farms, rural lands and businesses.

Its manifesto demands laws to protect the "heritage, culture and lifestyle of rural Ontario." It adds: "The choice is clear for rural Ontario and farmers: either accept and sanction the status quo of injustice, corruption and never-ending theft of farm incomes, or demand a future of justice and prosperity."

Since I don't drive, I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of CBC Radio's reports of moving gridlock in downtown Toronto. I can confirm that certain of Mr. Hillier's tactics are a bit bizarre.

Randy Hillier, president of the Lanark Landowners Association, sent a message to Dombrowsky containing a photo of a dead deer named "Leona." Dombrowsky said she turned the message over to police.

"That's clearly disturbing to receive e-mail like that, as an elected representative," she said, "and I am not going to be intimidated by those sorts of tactics."

Hillier said he was simply trying to get some government action on nuisance deer in Lanark County.

"Yeah, I think that got our point across," Hillier said. "Maybe we have a different sense of humour."

Yes, I send my friends E-mails with attachments of pictures of dead animals named after them all the time. It's all good fun. I just don't understand why I haven't heard from them in months. The man who set himself on fire at Queen's Park during the protest--apparently for unconnected reasons--only made an off-kilter situation somewhat more so.

Back to the interview: After announcing his support for creating a province of rural Ontario--apparently promoted on the Lanark Landowners Association's website, though I've not been able to find the document--and suggesting that he would like it if Torontonian separatism got off the ground, Mr. Hillier said that his goal, in creating massive gridlock and inconvenience for Torontonian drivers, was to make sure that urban Ontarians knew that farmers had serious problems. I fear that the net effect of this day's events may be to convince them that farmers are the problems.

This would be unfortunate. With a few exceptions, rural economies across Canada have tended to do badly relative to their urban counterparts, experiencing decline first in relative then in absolute terms. Again, with a few exceptions, rural economies have relatively few ways (both viable plans and mechanisms to enforce these plans) to try to recoup the ground that they've lost relative to urban economies. Wayne Roberts' suggestion in NOW last month that farmers shift to higher-value-added products--specialty crops, agro-tourism, and the like--is good in theory. Whether the plan actually is viable, or whether it can be implemented, is another thing altogether. Given the existing trajectory of decline, it couldn't hurt to try.

Various politicians and farming organizations have made the point that Mr. Hillier and the Lanark Landowners Association aren't representative of the majority of Ontarian farmers. This is doubtless true. What seems equally true is that their actions are testament to a growing desperation of a minority of farmers. Similarly true, I fear, is that more days of protest like today won't exactly endear Ontarian farmers to the non-farm population. I can imagine a time where urban Ontarians will ignore rural Ontario to death, and feel justified in doing so. Creative policy options, again, are desperately needed.

[META] Blogroll Addition

I've added SHWI poster Phil Edwards's blog Actually Existing to the blogroll.