A Serious Warning from a World Leader

Tony Blair, the Former British Prime Minister, delivered a keynote speech at Bloomberg HQ in London entitled 'Why the Middle East Still Matters.' In it he described radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the world today.

The Full Text of Tony Blair's speech

            Blair said “However the Middle East matters. What is presently happening there, still represents the biggest threat to global security of the early 21st C. The region, including the wider area outside its conventional boundary – Pakistan, Afghanistan to the east and North Africa to the west – is in turmoil with no end in sight to the upheaval and any number of potential outcomes from the mildly optimistic to catastrophe.

            At the root of the crisis lies a radicalised and politicised view of Islam, an ideology that distorts and warps Islam’s true message. The threat of this radical Islam is not abating. It is growing. It is spreading across the world. It is de-stabilising communities and even nations. It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence in an era of globalisation. And in the face of this threat we seem curiously reluctant to acknowledge it and powerless to counter it effectively.

           But I assert it nonetheless. I do so because underneath the turmoil and revolution of the past years is one very clear and unambiguous struggle: between those with a modern view of the Middle East, one of pluralistic societies and open economies, where the attitudes and patterns of globalisation are embraced; and, on the other side, those who want to impose an ideology born out of a belief that there is one proper religion and one proper view of it, and that this view should, exclusively, determine the nature of society and the political economy. We might call this latter perspective an ‘Islamist’ view, though one of the frustrating things about this debate is the inadequacy of the terminology and the tendency for any short hand to be capable of misinterpretation, so that you can appear to elide those who support the Islamist ideology with all Muslims.”

             He urged the West and indeed the entire world, to unite against the ideology Islamic extremism. Blair outlined potential foreign policy options for the West vis-a-vis various Middle Eastern countries in order to combat Islamists and to support religiously open and tolerant elements.

            Perhaps this statement by Blair sums up the message of his keynote speech best: "When we consider the defining challenges of our time, surely this one should be up there along with the challenge of the environment or economic instability."

           Former Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane compared the speech to Churchill's 1946 Iron Curtain address.

Addendum 

           After I posted Mr. Blair’s speech I began to wonder if he was proposing dictators like President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt are leaders the west should support. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is a dictator where personal freedom is not valued highly particularly for women. Most leaders of Muslim countries, even though not considered to be Islamist states, are not models that western Christian countries want to emulate. Pakistan is particularly anti “the west” is practice although pretending to be an ally of the United States. 

          There is little doubt that Islamists wish to replace western democracy with a Caliphate based on sharia law and Muslim fundamentalism. If Mr. Blaire is warning us of the impending danger then I support him.

 

The Age of Entitlement

 

                 Many citizens get their news from the Internet in doses that allow them time to doodle on Twitter or Facebook. A few people still read magazines and newspapers where among the adverts may be found insightful and reasoned reporting and comments. Results of the Quebec election receive favourable comment in the Toronto press and it is likely Quebec will blossom once again with the yoke of separation removed. I hope it will but I despair for Ontario which is slowly sinking into the abyss due to bad governance and fiscal mismanagement. Why is Ontario sinking, you ask?

             There are many reasons but incompetence is a basic issue. The result, as reported in the Toronto Sun “Ontario’s average income (real GDP per person) plunged to $2,710 lower than the national average in 2012, down from $612 above the national average in 2003.” The Ontario government has run budget deficits in seven of the past ten years and expects to remain in deficit until at least 2017-18. These are the years of the McGuinty Liberal administration that wasted billions on badly managed programs.

           Another reason is greed. The Toronto Star reported on the huge salaries being paid to Community Care Access Centres and Local Health Integration Networks. I, personally, do not know what these organizations do or what they are intended to do. Does anyone know what they do? No matter, the CEO of the CCAC in Ottawa received a pay increase of $67,000 this year bringing his salary to $315,000. There are 14 such organizations in Ontario with CEO’s who are paid an average of $227,700 per year, up 7% from 2012. Not bad for people whose main job seems to be to make sure front line health workers don’t receive more the $20,000 per year with no increase year over year. When did you last get an increase in pay? (If you even have a job.)

            It was interesting to read the article about the CEO of the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority who was being paid $211,901 per year in 2012 who resigned and took his pension from the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement plan amounting to $140,000 per year, not a bad pension. However, he didn’t want to stop work and so the board hired him on contract to do the same job as CEO of the TRCA and now gets receives an annual income of  $340,000 including the pension. He has a very effective financial advisor to swing this coup and he looks very happy in the photo in the newspaper. Oh, he also rents a home owned by the TRCA worth over a million dollars for $1,600 per month with a car allowance. Not bad for a civil servant eh. By the way what does the TRCA actually do? Where I live the Credit Valley Conservation Authority does all the grunt work.

            Many other civil servants and politicians are on the gravy train (Rob Ford’s favourite expression) including the Mayor of Brampton, several ex Senators, the head of Ontario Power Generation, any other Crown Corporation and hundreds more underlings who work for the “Entitled Class”. Its high time ordinary people rise up in righteous indignation. Oh, one caveat for Ontario voters, which of the politicians seeking to run the province would actually, really, truly make a difference? From my chair I don’t see a single one.