Shall we stop calling things "politics"?

A number of events of the past week really got me thinking on whether the omnipresent terms "politics" and "politician" are adequate and even appropriate to describe the actions and people usually tagged as such. Just to think of it - someone orders that hospitals be shelled (or "inspires" gun battles in and around hospitals, while patients and doctors suffer and die) and people be burned in their homes, and they are officially political leaders. Other individuals live the whole life caring for their neighbors, the environment, fight against corruption and hatred, playing an indispensable part in building a more just society - and we call them politicians. The same goes for "political". An organization calling for community-destroying school closures and the privatization of our health care system is political, just like the grassroots groups working for safer communities, literacy, access to medication. So what is "politics"? Is it greed, violence, deception, crime and total lack of any moral and ethic guidelines? Or is it compassion, love, optimism, not asking for anything in return for help? If it's both, then maybe it's time to stop using this pointless label.

On Tony Clement, free trade vs human rights, and Tories fighting asbestos widows

The dubious achievement of renaming things

Stephen Harper and his party seem to have a real urge to rename objects and organizations, place labels and signs on things, and do all of this in the name of Canada. Looking back at their previous "achievements" on this front of "work", it's possible to predict/guess what they will turn their name-calling or name-changing efforts to further:

• 2009: "Annual Budget of Canada" renamed "Canada's Economic Action Plan"
• 2010: Tony Clement's Slush Fund renamed "G8/G20 Expenses"
• 2010: The War in Afghanistan renamed "A training mission in Afghanistan"
• 2011: "Government of Canada" renamed "Harper Government"
• 2011: The word "royal" reinstalled in the names of Canadian military
• ????: Stephen Harper's riding of Calgary Southwest renamed
• ????: Ottawa renamed
• ????: Parliament renamed
• ????: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms renamed
• ????: Canada renamed

On the "ethical oil" campaign, barriers for doctors, Harper's sophisticated discourse, and government waste

On failed political jokes, inappropriate discourse, the Kabul embassy drinking tab, and other issues

On culture war against Harper, media sensationalism, poverty in Alberta and sending kids to jail

Harper's Conservatives as the new "natural governing party of Canada", the "training" mission in Afhganistan and government spending

On "inaccurate" gas pumps, RCMP report on G8 summit site, and ways to get people to vote

On oilsands wealth and possible long-term consequences of the Canada Post "resolution"

Attempt at a conversation with Minister Raitt

Mrs. Raitt,
As you've started your tenure as a Labour Minister with a major breakthrough in taking labour rights in Canada into the 19th century, here is some advice for the future (as the tough-on-workers approach will surely provoke more strikes, not fewer):

• Fastest way to decrease unemployment: stop recognizing those unemployed as workers at all. Just start treating them like a nuisance that can be easily disregarded. Pat on the shoulder from neanderthal colleagues guaranteed.
• Easiest way to push through back-to-work legislation: quickly claim that anyone opposing the legislation is unpatriotic and wants to kill the economy. Get a few sunny-news papers and TV channels to spread the word. Everyone goes back to work while you can go back to sleep.

Something to think about.