Blame Canada The USA
In Canada government ministers are up in arms (no pun intended) because Toronto has seen murders roughly double in the last year. Why is this happening you might ask? According to Toronto's mayor "The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto" I suggest Mayor Miller and Premier Martin sit down, crack a couple of Molsons and examine the history of gun violence in the US. Charts courtesy of the US Department of Justice
posted by mkchicago at 2:40 PM
6 Comments:
"It's a cop out. It's an easy way of looking at one symptom rather than addressing a whole disease," Thompson said.
So is knee-jerk America-bashing (clearly at work here) a justifiable reaction to our predatory cultural domination, or is it just the whole "hating the favorite" phenomenon you see in sports all the time? There are tons of people who despise Notre Dame football, the Yankees, Duke U basketball, the Patriots, etc, not because they root for the team's opponents, but because they win all the time. The converse is also true: if the Cubs won a few rings, they'd surely lose a bunch of their fans who hang on because they're the "lovable losers."
When you're #1, you're bound to make some enemies.
Importation of illegal firearms into Canada is a serious problem, though. Maybe they should make their own version of the Minutemen and patrol the border for US arms smugglers.
A buddy and I took a hoopdie-mobile giant Chevy Caprice up to Canada a few years ago, both of us entirely unkempt, and the border guard didn't even look at us. I don't know how common this is, but they may want to take a look at the practice.
Also, when someone checks the "I'm here to kill someone" box on the immigration application, it should raise a red flag.
I have some issues with the term "predatory cultural domination". It sounds like the type of complaint the Frenchies (among others) make while gobbling their BigMacs and Cokes. "Predatory" sems to imply that this stuff is forced on them. The fact of the matter is the world loves American products/culture almost as much as they love complaining about America. This may be less true today than in the heyday of Rambo movies and Levis jeans, but still very true.
Tard- I'm guessing unkempt hooptiemobile drivers are not a rarity in Canada, so you didn't raise an eyebrow. When I was walking around Vancouver about 10 years ago I saw plenty of unkempt folks. One of them wasn't shy about sidling up to me and asking "Drugs?" To this day I don't know if he was buying or selling. Bear in mind this was about 9:30 in the morning.
Ah - semantical quibbling, right up my alley!
So it's the "predatory" part of "predatory cultural domination" you have a problem with? Welcome to globalized capitalism, where American corporations, by stealth (ie, subliminal advertising) or force (superliminal), inculcate the citizens of foreign lands with an insatiable desire to consume their products. It may have uncomfortable connotations, but "predatory" describes exactly how the int'l capitalist system operates, irrespective of how acquiescent the prey are.
I suppose you want examples... there was some piece I heard or read in the last couple weeks about how the US vetoed a UN resolution designed to protect the cultural heritage of developing nations (say, local dance and folklore) against the onslaught of foreign domination (say, the American Pie movies). Korea (the good one) apparently has a booming film/TV industry, which is largely credited to their gov't mandating that a certain % of shows and movies are Korean in origin. I searched all lunch break for a cite, for naught. So you'll just have to trust me.
mk-
9:30 am drugs? Who says the Army does more before breakfast than other do?
My orbitz flight had me taking a 9 am cheap flight in first class, and I had to decide between obvious alcoholism and looking good.
Five bourbons later I landed in Denver.
Granted, the border lady was quite correct that my friend and I posed no threat, but the "everyone looks like you" defense might be reconsidered in age of gunfire. Toronto is having a shooting problem, with, what, one-sixth of Chicago's, with the same population?
I did like the mayor's Washington DC mayor re-dux with the "except for the shootings, crime is down" quote.
The decline in gun violence experienced in the US is almost certainly mostly attributable to a) the stabilization of crack markets in the mid- to late-90s(i.e., after a few years the turf of the gangs had been divided up and the borders were widely recognized, much the way they became within the Italian mafia), and b) the increase in the percentage of non-drug related violent criminals locked up in prisons for longer periods of time.
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