Pen Meets Paper

CAROPEN
Pen Meets Paper
Opinion by Helge Nome
Today (Monday) the Dow Jones Industrial Stock index took a nosedive of more than 500 points to less than 11,000 points following the collapse of the Lehman Bros investment bank, the fourth largest bank of its kind in the United States. All this is happening amongst a buildup of tension in both the Middle East and in South America. The Russian Bear has emerged from his post cold war slumber after having been thoroughly aggravated by Georgia's attack on South Ossetia. To put it in blunt terms, the world is re-polarizing at a very rapid rate. Alliances are formed so that a military attack on one member is considered to be an attack on all members.
Stephen Harper decided to call an early federal election in Canada, in spite of previous promises to the contrary. Conservative Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams has publicly called Stephen Harper a liar and promise breaker and his statements can hardly be challenged.
The timing of the Georgian attack on South Ossetia coincided with the Beijing Olympics and was said to have been enabled and encouraged by the Bush White House with involvement from Israel as well.
The mainsteam world media attention is now on the U.S. Race for the Presidency and here in Canada the airwaves will be filled with election talk, at the expense of more substantive news. Meanwhile, naval battle groups from nations on both sides of a potential conflict are taking up their positions, unnoticed by the vast majority of people. (Please check my Blog http://helgenome.blogspot.com where daily updates are being posted).
So were does all this leave us here in Canada? Does Stephen Harper want to lead us blindfolded into another war created by his friends in Washington? Or is his timing purely opportunistic following the Liberal blunder of proposing a carbon tax before an election, rather than afterwards? Most of us probably realize that an election is more of a stage show than a really important national event, both here and to the south of us: Plans and preparations for war are made well ahead of the event and the timing of the trigger is chosen for maximum perceived advantage. By looking at the past we can predict the future because the wheel goes round and around.