Well it’s finally happened – the War on Terror has come to Canada.
On Friday night, Canadians authorities arrested 17 people alleged to have been plotting to commits act of terrorism in and around southern Ontario – my hometown. Found in their possession were 3 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer (easily mixed with gasoline to become a volatile explosive) and the electronics for a remote detonator/IED to set off the explosive material.
Unlike the circumstances in 9/11, Cdn. authorities had been tracking this group for some time now and decided to move on the group before they could advance their plan any further.
Since 9/11, I’ve often thought about how I would respond had a similar attack taken place in my hometown of Toronto or in Vancouver.
It’s very easy for the rest of the world to be critical of the America’s asymetrical and arguable botched response to the 9/11 – 2 countries invaded in 3 years, human rights violations and atrocities from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, to domestic wire-tapping and condonation of torture.
However, how calm and principled could I be at the sight of terrorist attack on the TTC Subway train, the bombing of Skydome during a Blue Jay’s game, jet planes hitting the CN Tower, Scotia Tower or TD Bank towers; or the loss of any of my parents, brother, relatives and/or friends?
Would I try to put these loss into "perspective" or would I be overcome with anger and outrage? Suddenly these became quite real to me.
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Today is June 4th, 2006. For those counting, it is the 17th aniversary of the of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China.
With everything that has happened these recent years including from 9/11 and it’s aftermath, Hurricane Katrina and last year’s New Year Tsunami, its easy to forget about this event that now seems like ancient history to many people.
China is a much different place than it was 17 years ago. It’s one of the if not the fastest growing economy in the world and whose presence is being felt across the globe from the world commodities market to the geo-political stage.
Still its important to recognize that China is still an authoritarian regime that continues to maintain a tight grip on its people. It still casually and summarily detain folks without cause for extended periods of time – such as the case of Hao Wu, the Beijing blogger, filmmaker and long time Bay Area resident and tech worker, who was jailed without cause ostensibly for meeting a family church group – but that is a topic that deserves its own post altogether.
For now, let’s just take a moment to reflect on the day that is June 4th, 2006. Truth be told if I did not see today’s date – "6/4/2006" on corner of my computer’s display, I wouldn’t have remembered this day as well. No reference made to it in the news, or on the Internet – the best I could do after some searching was reference to a gathering of a some hundreds of people in HK. Good for the Hongers.
I wonder what the response will be like another 17 years from now? Hopefully by then China will have reformed enough that it June 4th can serve as a reminder to people everywhere how far the China has come instead of how far it still has to go.
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Confessions of An Economic Refugee 