[PHOTO] Looking up at Aura, September 2012

This, my most recent picture in my ongoing series of pictures of the ever-rising Aura condo complex at College Park, was taken on an overcast September day.

[LINK] "Glass closet"

Xtra!'s Matthew Hays covers the story of high-profile Conservative MP and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, almost certainly gay but not out. Not exactly. It makes an interesting commentary on the theme of last month's post about the Conservative Party of Canada's efforts--sincere ones, I'd argue, if perhaps belated--to reach out to GLBT voters if someone like Baird isn't fully out.

Just to set the record straight, it was not some nasty commie queer activist who outed Baird. It was another Tory. On Feb 2, 2010, Conservative candidate Pamela Taylor, who was then running for Ontario provincial office in a by-election, was asked, while on a morning radio chat show, if she could name a single gay Tory. “Openly gay? John Baird,” she responded.

Baird had long been identified as gay in the blogosphere, where, it seems, such things dare speak their name. Up until that point, the mainstream media had avoided the issue.

The response to the outing was odd. Xtra ran it as a lead story online, eliciting a steady stream of reader comments. According to a 2010 Google traffic report, it was xtra.ca’s most-read story of the year. But the mainstream media, perhaps once again inadvertently proving their dinosaur status, chose not to touch the story.

Aside from one article that detailed the outing in La Presse, all the mainstream dailies and radio and TV stations steered clear. (According to the mainstream media, Baird’s is a linguistically lopsided outing; apparently he’s gay in only one official language.) In fact, reporting on the high-profile Baird is hilarious — I haven’t seen this much coded language for “he’s gay but we can’t say it” since I read what gossip columnists wrote about Rock Hudson in the 1950s. When Baird was named Parliamentarian of the Year by Maclean’s in 2010, reporter Aaron Wherry called him “the charming Conservative” (a phrase some might consider a contradiction in terms). Wherry pointed out that some MPs consider Baird “an enigma of sorts.” The article hints at a split personality, quoting Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who asks, “Who is the real John Baird? Is he the charming, boyish kind of person who is trying to win over the hearts of people? Or is he the pit bull?” Why, he’s the Talented Mr Ripley!

In their defence, Canadian journalists have attempted to maintain a certain ethic on the private lives of politicians. In order to avoid a Clinton/Lewinsky-esque carnival atmosphere, journalists have (for the most part rightly) deemed such issues unnecessary to cover. The emphasis, they point out, should be on the job performances of politicians, not on their personal lives. It could be seen as a twist on the famous Trudeau-ism: the nation has no place in the bedrooms of the state.

But proponents of outing — that is, the act of pushing public figures out of the closet against their will — have long suggested that such acts are entirely justifiable where hypocrisy is involved. Simply put, if you’re working against the rights of queer people, you’ve abdicated your right to remain in the closet.

This question becomes more complicated with Baird, seeing as he is now criticizing governments in other parts of the world for their homophobic policies. Since fighting homophobic laws abroad seems to be part of his agenda, isn’t it then fair to bring up his sexual orientation? To ask Baird how he works within the Conservative Party, given that we know many of its MPs and supporters are hostile to queer rights?

If we had a government that was known to be anti-Semitic, for example, wouldn’t it be fair to ask a prominent Jewish member of that government how he or she managed to make sense of such an apparent contradiction? These are questions that seem imperative.

[LINK] "Ethiopia Charts a Chinese Course"

Ed McKenna's Inter Press Service article highlights the Chinese-style trajectory of Ethiopia in the past decade, a combination of an authoritarian political system with relatively competent governance and an export-oriented economy. As the professor interview notes, Ethiopia is still a very poor country, even by African standards. If sustained, though, Ethiopia's economic growth could eventually produce significant results, as we've in fact seen already with China. Much depends on succession.

The death of Ethiopia’s leader of 21 years has raised fears of instability in one of Africa’s fastest-growing non-oil producing nations, which could potentially slow investment activity.

Former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who passed away in August, saw foreign direct investment (FDI) as key to his development plan for Ethiopia. This attitude helped shift Ethiopia’s economy from being wholly reliant on the export of agricultural commodities to, for example, utilising abundant labour and cheap power to begin developing a manufacturing industry.

“Without Meles, Ethiopia will struggle to control unrest (ethnic/religious) that could easily spill across regional borders,” a recent International Crisis Group report said.

According to the National Bank of Ethiopia, FDI in this country climbed from 150 million dollars in 2005 to 1.1 billion dollars in 2010. To bring in scarce foreign exchange, Meles channeled investment to export-oriented sectors like floriculture, horticulture, textiles, and leather.

Ethiopia’s foreign earnings increased 15 percent last year to 3.2 billion dollars, according to the Ministry for Trade. The government aims to double exports as a share of output by 2015, with a much bigger contribution coming from minerals and manufactured goods.

Dr Getachew Begashaw, professor of economics at Harper College in the U.S. city of Chicago, questions to what extent foreign investment is translating into jobs and improved quality of life for Ethiopians.

“Ethiopia has the lowest per capita GDP (only 351 dollars) in Africa; it is one of the last four countries in Africa. Similarly, it stands at the bottom of all countries reviewed for the human development and prosperity indices (171 out of 178 for HDI and 108 out of 110 for prosperity),” he told IPS.

By citing China as his model for governance, Meles may have mistakenly presumed that investors were only interested in receiving a good return on finance, according to Getachew, who believes that if the government’s repressive approach continues it could deter companies in the future.

“The political climate in the country is not conducive for investments; the degree of human rights abuses in the country dampens the sense of economic security; the lack of a free, secure, and safe political environment will discourage bold economic initiatives. The current uncertainties following (Mr. Meles´s) death could slow investment decisions,” Getachew said.

[. . .]
According to a recent International Monetary Fund report, Chinese firms are attracted by cheap labour, large plots of land and a growing market of 94 million people.

Chinese factories like shoe manufacturer Huajian are now relocating production facilities to Ethiopia to escape rising costs at home. The company was also drawn by one of the largest livestock industries in Africa.

The firm may generate four billion dollars in exports a year, according to a recent Bloomberg report that cites the company’s vice president. Chinese businesses have invested 900 million dollars in the country, Ethiopia’s Investment Agency reports.

Foreign firms are also eyeing up services. This year the number one hotel group in Europe, the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, expanded its upscale Radisson Blu brand into Ethiopia. The company says it sees this country as its vanguard in east Africa.

Also this year, Schulze Global Investments, a U.S. firm, announced a 100 million dollar Ethiopia fund, the first private-equity scheme focused exclusively on this Horn of Africa country. The fund will invest in sectors from agribusiness and cement to health care and natural resources.

[LINK] "The Exporters of Revolution"

Facebook's Douglas linked to Tomas Sacher’s Transitions Online article describing how Serbia’s Otpor! movement, founded to oppose the Milosevic regime at the end of the last century, ended up becoming the seedbed of a think tank for revolutionaries around the world. I’d read about the group in passing, but never knew that it had acquired such worldwide influence.

Among the shops at an inconspicuous building in the Serbian capital's Gandijeva housing development is an unmarked door with the word "CANVAS" on the buzzer. On a recent afternoon, CANVAS Executive Director Srdja Popovic greeted a visitor with a warm smile. The office has a few desks, a computer, and a conference table. It gives little impression of CANVAS' work. But then Popovic is rarely there. He had just returned from several weeks abroad and planned to fly out again in two days.

“South Sudan and Burma are my next destinations,” Popovic said.

Since 2003, the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS, has offered a unique product in countries like Burma: a guide to overthrowing authoritarian regimes through peaceful resistance. The nonprofit taps Popovic's experience leading the student movement that toppled Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic over a decade ago to train would-be revolutionaries to identify and attack the Achilles heel of autocrats. As Popovic likes to say, revolution is first and foremost a “carefully organized and planned action.”

Srdja Popovic helped start the movement that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic by setting a turkey loose on the streets of Belgrade. Now he travels the world helping other activists.

Anyone can hire CANVAS. They need only convince Popovic their fight is just and pay the travel expenses of his small team of "lecturers.'" Ukraine's Orange Revolution, the Arab Spring, the recent political opening in Burma – CANVAS has had a hand in all. It represents the worst fears of autocrats from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

[. . .]

CANVAS has organized hundreds of workshops in more than 50 countries. It has 10 permanent lecturers, mostly Serbs, but also Ukrainians, Filipinos, and South Africans. Tens of thousands of people have downloaded "Nonviolent Struggle," translated into several languages including Arabic and Persian.

[. . .]

CANVAS does not actively pursue clients. But anyone can try to hire them, not only "revolutionaries." This includes LGBT and women's rights groups or even election monitors.

"If we see the goal as interesting, we are glad to help,” the lecturer explained.

CANVAS only asks for plane tickets and accommodation for the lecturers, premises for the workshop, and a symbolic fee that often varies “from case to case. There are many applicants. The lecturer travels abroad around once a month. And she and her colleagues often stay in touch with clients, some of whom have become lecturers themselves.

[LINK] “Lawyer Charles Roach dies with citizenship dream unfulfilled”

The CBC carried the Canadian Press article reporting on the quixotic quest of Trinidad-born civil rights lawyer Charles Roach to become a Canadian citizen without swearing an oath to the Canadian crown.

I can appreciate how the situation must have been a Catch-22 from his perspective--how could he change the oath of allegiance he’d have to take to become a citizen without becoming a citizen by taking the oath of allegiance he didn’t want to take?--but in the absence of any desire on the part of Canadians and their representatives to change the terms of admission into the Canadian political community, and the lack of any obvious injustice found in the situation by the courts, Roach choose to get stuck on his own principles.

A man who refused to take the oath of citizenship, because of his opposition to the monarchy, has died with his decades-long dream of becoming a Canadian unfulfilled.

Toronto civil-rights lawyer Charles Roach, who immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago more than half a century ago, died Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 79.

Roach had fought to change the country's citizenship requirements to allow people to swear an oath to Canada instead of the throne, which he said represented a legacy of oppression, imperialism and racism.

A New Democrat MP is now calling on Ottawa to make Roach, who was a prominent community activist, a Canadian citizen posthumously. In a statement Wednesday to the House of Commons, Andrew Cash urged the government to honour Roach with the status.

"People may not agree with the views that Mr. Roach expressed around this issue, but I think you can disagree and still respect the man and his contributions," the Toronto MP said in an interview from Ottawa.

Cash said he tried asking Immigration Minister Jason Kenney last week to fulfil Roach's dying wish to become a Canadian citizen by pledging allegiance to Canada, instead of the Queen. He said Kenney did not respond to the request.

[. . .] Immigration Canada quickly shut the door on any chance that Roach would be given his citizenship after death.

"There is no provision under the Citizenship Act for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to grant citizenship posthumously," a departmental spokesman wrote in an email Wednesday.

The department said the oath is mandatory under the act and any amendment would first have to pass through Parliament.

[. . .]

[Roach's] stance against uttering the oath nearly forced him to give up his profession because of an old requirement that said he had to be a Canadian to practise law. [Colleague Peter] Rosenthal said Roach even declined an opportunity to become a judge over his refusal to take the oath.