Went to the Canadian International Air Show yesterday – Cara and I were lucky and got free VIPs from a friend who is an air traffic controller at YYZ. Friends in high places. More bad word jokes ! What I loved about it was that it felt like is one of the best examples of what (wo)man and machine can do together. Thinking how an engine can force you to plug your ears from hundreds of metres away. Way to go, humans! At least we’re good with engines, not so good with compassionate capitalism and fairness. But hey, win some lose some?
Now this sounds so sheltered and naive and Canadian, but what got me iffy was the obvious military talk, the killing power of the machines over the deafening loudspeaker, the sellout country songs which repeats the words “freedom” and “patriot” like D major and G major on that plugged in crispy Garth Brooks acoustic guitar . Bad things happen, Canadian forces kill every day, these planes were built to do those very things. I don’t feel like I turn a blind eye to our military either, I even feel I do a better job than the average Canadian with this. But it still felt like Bush redux. You are indirectly fighting for our freedom, ok. But obvious, “they” don’t hate us for it. They hate us for being in their shit for the past 30 years. (obvious).
Of course human rights violations of some of these “freedom fighting” countries heavily complicate matters, but it’s not that cut and dried. We know. You’ve heard this before so I’ll stop – oil, resources, exploitation, bullying, encouraging democracy, making mistakes, not being able to contain militant forces with millions of troops (not to mention private contractors like Blackwater). Maybe why we blanked on Sudan ? OK I’ll stop.
[photo via hame.ca]
