The attack in Paris totally took over the news this last weekend.
It was truly awful, but why did it it get so much media attention when equally awful attacks in other countries — Beirut, Bagdad, Syria (the list is a long one) got none?
When U.S. or Canadian bombs kill innocent people, it’s called collateral damage and deemed to be OK. When a U.S. airstrike destroyed a clearly marked hospital in northern Afghanistan, killing children and staff and burning patients in their beds, it was called a “mistake.”
The charity that ran the hospital considers it a war crime. Between Oct. 6 and 12 this year, at least 201 Palestinian children were injured by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The 201 injured kids probably thought it was terrorism.
I don’t want to take anything away from the horror in Paris. I just think if all the attacks on all sides got equal publicity, the powers-that-be might wake up to the madness of it all. No one is winning this war, or whatever it is.
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On the local scene, is anybody noticing the price of produce? Vegetable prices were up nearly 15 per cent across Canada last year, 2.7 per cent last month alone. B.C. is leading the parade in price increases, mainly because we import about 80 per cent of our fruit and vegetables. We produce enough meat to feed ourselves. So what are we doing about produce? We’re getting rid of our farmland as fast as we can, selling it to foreigners, building houses on it, even flooding vast acres of it (Site C). Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
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GGs #6 and 7 are happy with the snow. Apparently it is too dry for snowman making, but it’s just right for sledding and they have a dandy hill right in their back yard. It’s especially fun coming down the hill in the dark with flashlights. That was a new one to me.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
