Posts from — June 2008

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I’ve just finished reading a book about the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague and the Courts potential to help the people of war torn countries. It is written by a Canadian, Erna Paris and probably not a topic of interest to most readers of Thunder Bay Seniors Paper. If however you are interested in this kind of thing, you may want to pick it up. I really enjoyed it. The book is called The Sun Climbs Slowly.
Have you ever thought about what makes our way of life different from that of countries around the world. Countries that seem to be in constant conflict, going through ethnic cleansing or faced with murderous self serving governments? 
Chief Prosecutor for the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, would say that we have a consensus of how we will be ruled, an agreement about justice and peace and human rights. We have rules of law and institutions that support our beliefs. The police and the judiciary try breaches of established law and isolated cases of murder. We have a constitution that guides the decisions of judges. These things stabilize our country.
If this is what separates peaceful states from dysfunctional ones doesn’t it make sense that international laws concerning human rights might help provide stability and a leg up for countries struggling? We have some pretty clear international agreements about human rights, it is enforcing them that has been the challenge. This is were the court comes in.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague is relatively new. The first judges, eleven men and seven women were just elected in 2003 as was the Chief Prosecutor. There have been other Criminal Courts. The most famous of course is the Nuremburg Court after the Second World War. More recent, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia have prosecuted war criminals so the International Criminal Court has the advantage of learning from these courts.
The Court’s task is at once daunting and hopeful. Hopeful in that leaders of countries can be held responsible for their actions to a higher court. According to the ICC guidelines countries have first right to try their war criminals, however, if they don’t or are unable to, the International Court may step in.
The court tries individuals not countries.
It is daunting in so many ways. How and who will decide which cases are brought before the court? Will the Courts proceedings impact negatively on a country’s efforts at peace? Individuals charged with crimes against humanity will have followers who believe in them and who may cause further problems. Should the leverage of immunity be used in this court? In many cases leaders on both sides of a conflict are guilty of atrocities. Is the Court universally applicable or does it only apply to countries that sign on? The USA under President Clinton supported the establishment of an International Court and signed on. President Bush ceremoniously signed off and had Statue 98 written that the US administration trotted out to countries. It stated that neither signing country would ever prosecute the other. 102 countries have signed this agreement, many because they depended on aid from the States. The Bush administration fears that because the USA is the worlds super power and because they provide aid to so many countries, they are vulnerable to being brought to court. They also believe that the best way to ensure peace is to have one super power that has the military might to call the shots. The Bush Administration has supported torture and illegal confinement of people that is considered indictable by the Geneva Convention, the Rome Statue and the ICC.
In 1973 under President Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the States removed duly elected President Salvador Allende from power in Chile and installed Military dictator Agusto Pinochet who committed crimes against humanity killing many thousands of people including foreign nationals. In 2001, while in Paris, Kissinger was given a subpoena by a French judge investigating allegations that five French citizens were kidnapped, tortured and killed in Chile under the Pinochet regime. Henry K quietly left Paris for Italy and sent his regrets to the judge on the day he was to appear saying he had another appointment. The ICC is not retroactive. There has been a lot of speculation in the US and abroad about the Bush administrations actions in the War against Terror. Vincent Bjugliosi, a well known California lawyer, has written a book titled The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Little wonder the Bush administration wants as little to do with a criminal court as possible.
The ICC had it’s formal beginning with the support of the United Nations in 1998 in Rome where 80 some countries agreed that an international court was a good idea. A Canadian, Philippe Kirsch, was selected to be President of the Rome Tribunal. The details were slowly worked through over the next 5 years.                                                                             
I enjoyed Erna Paris’ style of writing and would really recommend the book. It is a hopeful book.

My son, Michael, has a first love and that is soccer so it was with much joy that we celebrated his teams winning the Ontario high schools AAA level soccer tournament. Three days and 6 games were needed to do the job but the boys came through. They won all 6 games playing teams from Windsor, Ancaster, Alymer, Nepean, Barrie and Oakville.

Thunder Bay hosted the games so it was particularly sweet to win at home. It is the first time St. Ignatius has won the AAA soccer championship.

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I belong to a great book club and we met last night to discuss our latest read, The Audacity of Hope by Democratic Candidate for President of the United States, Barack Obama. The book was timely in that it was just last week that Barack won the Democratic nomination reigniting the American Dream.

We, book club members, marveled at the fact that a black man was the leading candidate for President. We agreed that if someone had said that this was going to happen even 5 years ago we wouldn’t have believed it possible. It has given me renewed hope for the US and for the world.

We talked about how it is still possible in the States for someone to reach the highest political office without being wealthy and how the internet and technology had enabled this just when most had given up hope that middle class Americans could ever afford such a challenge.But most of all we talked about Obama’s dream for a better life for America’s poor and middle class, about a health care system that served all Americans and his desire to put the average citizen above the interests of the lobby groups and corporate greed.

We liked the sincerity that came through his writing as shown in the titles of his Chapters; Values, Our Constitution, Politics, Faith, Race, The World Beyond Our Borders, Family. The book was obviously written with the goal of a better America and of the role he wanted to play in making these changes. I was impressed with the amount of thought given to each chapter and I couldn’t help but think that it was probably substantially more than most politicians.

If he missed anything in the book it was addressing the importance of corporate power to America; both its strengths and its weaknesses. He is critical of the lobby of corporations and of the money CEO’s make but doesn’t talk about the relationship he would like to have with corporate America if he becomes President. He is building his success on the support of Middle America and so far he seems to be winning.

If you want to see change in America or if you are just hoping for a kinder, more sensitive America read The Audacity for Hope. After reading the book I felt much more hopeful than I have in years.

My bookclub just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Owen stands just under 5 feet in height and may weigh 100 lbs socking wet. It is sometimes confusing to follow the jumps in time; the narrator, Owen’s best friend Johnny Wheelwright, alternates the story of his growing up with Owen with anecdotes from his “present” life in the late 80’s.

I loved the humour and really enjoyed the themes which included predestination, faith, doubt, politics, love, hate, family, friendship. Owen had an opinion on them all.

I would recommend it as a fun read although be forwarned that it is 619 pages and while not a heavy read it is quite long.

If you enjoy mystries you may want to give Christine Falls by bejiman Black a go. I read it after Donna Gilhooly reviewed it in May addition of thunder Bay Seniors Paper. It is a gripping story of protagonist Quirke’s search to find out what happened to the baby of a women whose body disappeared from his morgue.

Check out Donna’s review if you want to learn more.