the blog quebecois

CTV:

One day after a lead detective vented his frustration over what he deems lack of cooperation from witnesses in the city's latest homicide, friction continues between members of Edmonton's Somali community and officers trying to solve the case.

Bill Clark met with media on Sunday, arguing people inside the Papyrus Restaurant and Lounge saw who pulled the trigger in the early hours of New Year's Day, killing a 23-year-old man identified by friends as Muhammad Mahood Jama, and injuring another.

"We know the individual in hospital knows who shot him, he won't talk. We know there are other people inside who saw the suspect," he said. "Of all the people we interviewed, one person provides a suspect description - absolutely ludicrous."

Clark's anger stems in part from what he sees as a lack of trust between local Somalis and police after a substantial amount of resources were invested to improve the relationship. In the wake of dozens homicides that claimed young men from the community in the past several years, the city responded with several town hall meetings, sports tournaments, an African Centre and other efforts to elicit change. Edmonton also created 18 organizations to help facilitate integration.

"So when we hear people in the Somali community and these ethnic communities complaining about city administration it frustrates us," said Clark on Sunday.

But Ilham Ahmed, a board member of the Somalia Community Centre, argues police are wrong to pin all the responsibility on the community.

"Why do we have to look for our own criminals?" she asked. "What I see is negligence from the police community because when you are trained to investigate a murder you are not supposed to be make special - a criminal is a criminal. He doesn't have a face, he doesn't have a race."

City councillor Amarjeet Sohi is calling on witnesses to come forward in the New Year's day homicide, but also argues it's important to find out why there is resistance.

"If there is a demand from the community that these homicides, these murders, need to be solved, then people need to cooperate," he said. "On the other hand we need to figure out why people are not cooperating, why people feel scared. Is there not enough support from police? I think there is but people need to be made aware."

The province's immigration minister agrees with that sentiment, arguing members of the Somali community need to utilize supports already in existence.

"The resources are in place, all they have to do is reach out and use them," said Thomas Lukasik. "If there is an integration problem then we will focus on it. I think we are doing what we can. There has to be some impetus from the Somali community, willingness to want to integrate. I'm not sensing that there isn't."

Still, Ahmed argues there is a sense of isolation in the Somali community, and a sense of disconnect between her culture and the city at large. She says she struggles to feel at home, even 20 years after immigrating to the country.

"Nothing has been done for this community. We are left on our own," she said.

I can understand how much she misses the swift certainty of Somali justice, which boasts an incredible 100% clearance rate (Though, to be fair, so do approximately 90% of other African police forces. I can state this with some certainty, having lived in Africa two years more than most of my African-Canadian brothers.) when it comes to cases like this. Witness:

a) Police arrive on scene, determine that victim is a member of unpopular tribe/sect/clan;

b) Case closed!

or:

a) Police arrive on scene, determine that victim is a member of popular tribe/sect/clan;

b) Police round up members of unpopular tribe/sect/clan. Several of these will unfortuately expire during "questioning," too bad, so sad. Go out and get some replacements. Continue vigorous "investigations" until "confession." Kill unpopular tribe/sect/clan (or send to prison -- same result);

c) Case closed!

And that's the way we roll in (insert African nation here). [takes off, puts on sunglasses as closing music swells.]

[exeunt omnes]

InsideToronto.com

A threat posted online against Coptic Orthodox churches in Toronto and members of the local Coptic community "doesn't worry us much," said the senior priest of the Scarborough parish.

"We are accepting whatever happens to us, because our faith is in God," said Fr. Marcos Marcos on Tuesday, Jan. 4.

But as Copts prepared to gather Thursday, Jan. 6, to celebrate their Christmas Eve, local Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis was urging police forces wherever Coptic churches exist in Canada to "speak to the priests personally to alleviate their fears and if necessary to provide adequate protection."

A bomb attack in Egypt on New Year's Eve killed more than 20 Copts, worsening relations between that country's Christians and its Muslim majority.

Reports say an Al-Qaeda-linked website last month posted lists of Coptic churches in Canada and identified 100 Arab-Christian Canadians as Copts.

"On that website they show how to bomb people, how to make homemade bombs," said Karygiannis, who said the mood among Canada's Copts is tense.

This tears it, al-Qaeda. You so much as harm a hair on the head of our precious Sheila and I promise you I'll . . . I'll . . .

I'll have a beer and a ham sandwich, that's what I'll do, 'cause I know how much you hate our freedoms.

One of the benefits of writing new songs, I found, was that they tended to be more complete. Previously I would concentrate on the lyrics of the first verses and chorus -- anything beyond that was usually just filler to pad out the length.

Part of it is that I had what I would term a "romantic" idea of songwriting, where the song would appear, fully formed, from the ether. It's nice when that happens -- maybe once or twice a year -- but you shouldn't count on it on your journey to the Top Of The Pops. Like any other writing, it takes persistence and the willingness to rip up what isn't working and rewrite it until you get it right. Or at least until you can sing it without apologizing in advance.

===========================

Verse:

So you've risen to the top of the ladder
And you are the master of all you survey
But there's an itching
Like a fire in the kitchen
It's your dirty little secret
Your dirty little secret

Sure you've struggled to nail up your name
Now at the summit you collect paper scraps
But there's a swelling
Little whispers telling
Your dirty little secret
-------------------------------------------------
Chorus:

In the dark of night
You rub your dirty little secret
When no one's looking
You bite down
And the pain is sweet
In the light of day
You disguise your dirty little secret
When no one's looking
You bite down
And the pain is sweet
-------------------------------------------------
Verse:

You've got money enough to burn
You can buy all your friends wholesale
But all that cash
Won't cover the rash
Of your dirty little secret

[Rpt. second verse, chorus]
=============================

Believe it or not (my cousin certainly didn't), this wasn't about sex, at least not more than peripherally. I stole the title from an essay by D.H. Lawrence, who was talking about sex; more specifically, masturbation, the wanker. I can't find a link [and still can't -- this one now appears to be dead] for it, but here Martin Amis makes mention of it (near the bottom of the page). [Update: Here are some excerpts from it, at Google Books.]

I was thinking more of a scene in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is haunted by a childhood memory of being in a bomb shelter with his mother and younger sister in one of Oceania's endless wars. He steals some chocolate from the crying child and he

carried this pathetic image around for the rest of his life.

So, if anything, the song is a metaphor for the shabby ways we treat others.

Speaking of shabby, our playing was a bit less than optimum, with blown notes here and there, and occasionally the whole project drifted off course.

Most of it works, though.

Note how my cousin attempts to sabotage my performance with four (I counted them) handclaps that I can only characterize as "insolent and sarcastic."

Well, I guess you had to be there. But I soldiered on manfully. Manfully, I tell you.

Previous: Dirty Little Secret

"At long last, we can give die-hard gamers the level of realism they've been looking for." Hood added that researchers are currently exploring technologies that would allow the shamans and clerics in World Of Warcraft to practice modern medicine instead of depending on unrealistic magical healing spells.

Toronto Sun:

In one of the most head-slappingly moronic moves in history, the national embarrassment that is the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has ruled that Dire Straits' 1985 song Money for Nothing can no longer be played in its original form in Canada -- because one person in Newfoundland was offended over its use of a word that starts with F, rhymes with maggot and refers to gay men.

Never mind that the song is more than 25 years old and has been played countless times. Never mind that the supposedly offensive word is as old as the hills, and used regularly on TV, in books and movies, and by pretty much every kid on the planet.

And never mind that even the most cursory examination of the lyrics -- a jab at the vapidity of music videos, as seen through the eyes of a joe-sixpack character -- makes it obvious to anyone without a head injury that Mark Knopfler is using the term in question humourously and ironically.

I heard Charles Adler`s interview this afternoon with the idiot running the CBSC, Ron Cohen. Weep that we are ruled by men such as these. (Kathy Shaidle should be along shortly to confirm that Cohen is, in fact, far too stupid to be an actual Jew.)

I think what we have here is a failure to appreciate the unique culture of Newfoundland. I`ve taken the liberty of writing a lyric that our complainant might find more congenial. Take the title of this post and add these lines to it:

I's the b'y who'll blow ya
I's the b'y with the great big cock
My friends all call me "Liza"

Trouble is I can`t make it scan without sounding like Bob Dylan on Quaaludes . . . waitaminute! "Newfie" works quite well. Witness:

That little Newfie with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that's his own hair
That little Newfie's got his own jet airplane
That little Newfie he's a millionaire

Just claim it's about Danny Williams if anyone raises a fuss.

You can have this one for free; but work with me, work with me here, Mark. Together we'll have your back-catalog cleaned up to Canadian standards in no time flat.

Like "Down To The Waterline." (I think I can work the "I's the b'y" stuff into that somewhere.)

And let's face it, it's only a matter of time until Allah and the Islamists (which, now that I think about it, would be a Pretty Good Name For A Rock Band, if you're interested in getting together) discover "Sultans Of Swing" to their usual utterly predictable outrage.

I'm as much in favor of Christmas traditions as anyone; but I'm really hoping that this isn't becoming one of them.

For the second year in a row, I've managed to kill my computer. Well, not literally, but I had to reinstall Windows, which accomplished much the same result. I was able this time to salvage most of my pictures and videos, and all of my music, so my sunday vanity project should resume shortly (yay!).

But there's a lot to rebuild, so I'll mainly be occupied with that for the foreseeable future. I'll also be looking into offsite data backup -- if anyone has a recommendation for one of the commercial sites, I'd be interested in hearing about it.