Christmas begun in earnest this weekend. I braved the minus thirty-four degrees of Edmonton to attend The Nutcracker with mining folk. Then supper at a fancy restaurant and much talk of the past decade—the first of the 2000s and soon to be over and done with. On Sunday night to a party to sing carols and eat and drink some more. And to argue with a climate change denier.
At both parties there was much talk of the goings-on at Chicomuselo, Chiapas: that mine in Mexico where Blackstone says they were bribing the mayor who wanted a tryst with an ugly prostitute, and when Blackstone stopped paying (or refused to pay), the mayor let loose his thugs and they killed a local activist who was opposing the mine. Or at least that is one version of a sorry tale. We will probably never know the truth, except that this is the dirty side of life. All agreed this case should have not impact on discussions of Bill C-300. Try as we might, we could identify the family of the slain activist as the only possible party who could bring a suite in Canada if Bill C-300 were in force. And what a mess that would be. Can you imagine trying to make a case that denial of access to prostitutes constitutes non-adherance to human rights. True, denying the bribes did result in the death of an activist who seems to have become more a pawn in a personal vendetta than a symbol of anti-mining, or a victim of an out-of-control Canadian mining company.
Then there was discussion of Copenhagen and global warming. The climate change denier, a reporter from the provinces, loudly proclaimed it all to be a socialist plot. Then somebody wondered, in all innocence, why right wingers are so anti-science. We decided it is because right wingers are prone to revere the status quo and science threatens the status quo. Then all hell broke loose, in spite of the Christmas carols. And the miners said global warming is real: witness the reduction of the operative period of the ice road to the Canadian diamond mines of the far north; and it simply makes common sense not to pollute. As expected from all good Canadian journalists, he turned the topic to a tirade against Obama. Thank goodness we do not have to rely on Canadian newspapers for our news—and no wonder newspapers everywhere are going under.
Thus we enter the festive season as festive and argumentative as ever. Was it ever different? We shudder at the thought of lists of the best of the year and the best of the decade. No doubt we will make our own such lists. Whichever way you look, though, both Bill C-300 and the Mexico bribery and murder story certainly will qualify on some list of the best and worst of the 2000s, or of 2009 to be more precise. I also nominate the Bellavista story, and the Utah coal mine disaster for the best of the decade. Let me have your nominations.
And let us recall what Mariano Abarca said:
Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t do to your own people. I think the government of Canada should be more careful with these companies who come to Mexico and treat us badly. I call on the Canadian government to do something because we’re the same as any other citizen. We have rights too.
You can read a great deal more about the mine and the murder at this link which is the most comprehensive I have come across.
