Five Days in Bangkok

CBC.ca - Arts - Film - Five Days in Bangkok
I am loving the new CBC Arts site, they have gone the extra mile and have original content from some of Canada's best minds. Today it was Don McKellar writing on the Bangkok Film Festival he attended. And there, in the middle, is some great reporting- some great humanity- some real politik that has made me think I am not the only person who views the world in a clinical manner:

"The day before I arrived, the Thai Prime Minister made a statement: Thailand will not ask the world for aid. It is not a Third World country, and it will never be taken seriously again if it presents itself begging for money. Joy tells me how these words filled her with pride."

And this quote, from the very kind people at Oxfam-Québec, landed in my email, thanking myself and the other organizers of our little house music benefit show late last month:

"On behalf of the people of South Asia, we are deeply grateful for your generosity and proud to welcome you to the Oxfam-Québec family."

That's a whole lotta thanks. I hope our meager contribution is going to good use.

One final note on the Tsunami disaster: to all of you who think the Canadian Government shouldn't have sent the DART military unit over there at the expense of $48 million or so- that the money would have been better spent by NGO's- you're naive fools. You send over a fully outfitted military squad to do soil sampling, covert target assessment; and to make estimates of military preparedness of the "host" country. They're there to check out the stability of the government, the neighboring governments- to get the lay of the land. So to speak...

(addendum- I'll expand here for clarity- yes, NGO's could have used the money better for purely humanitarian relief. But it is highly unlikely that was their sole mission in being there. I have yet to meet an NGO employee who would take kindly to an Intelligence de-briefing.)