Today’s Random Green Party Policy of the Day from Vision Green is page 118:

“The Canadian Foreign Service is suffering from the neglect of successive governments. The Harper government, in particular, has underestimated the importance of a robust diplomatic corps with highly-trained officers.

Canada has traditionally had a fine foreign service. Its officers represent a standard of excellence envied by the world.

Green Party MPs will:

- Restore adequate financial support to the hiring and training of a continuing foreign service and embassies, consular services and High Commissions around the world.”

Quick Translation: Our Foreign Service used to move the world with its skill and bridge-building, giving Canada a diplomatic reputation far above our middle-class power status. We are losing this reputation – and the Green Party wants it back.

Won’t it feel great to vote Green!

It is sad for me to see a Canadian icon like Rex Murphy slip into vitriolic ranting, the likes of which Toronto has seen too much of these last few months, but that is how he has chosen to use his precious inches in the National Post. His most recent column, from Friday, is so one-sided and narrow-minded that I questioned whether it was even worth responding to.

However, a rant was requested by a dear friend, so here it is:

Rex slams the UN for allowing *bad* people like Ahmadinejad to participate, allowing the Human Rights Council to make decisions he doesn’t agree with, and, generally, not bowing down and licking the ass of western leaders. He claims it is inefficient, that it has failed, and that we, as a country, are foolish to seek a Security Council seat because we should just walk away.

How ridiculous.

The United Nations is a grand experiment the likes of which humanity has never before attempted. It envisions a world where we talk instead of fight, where we have a neutral forum for diplomacy, and where even the smallest country has as much power as the mightiest.

The General Assembly comes close to this ideal – it has passed landmark resolutions through the decades that have helped to create a new standard for humane behaviour. It has called for acknowledgment of the Rights of Children, the Indigenous, the Disabled (Differently Abled), Women, and many other groups. Which is pretty amazing considering it has representatives from almost every recognized country in the world.

After two horrific world wars in the first half of the 20th century, the UN has played a key role in raising living standards and reducing violence the world over. It has provided a moral voice that provides light to those living in darkness and it has not shied away from calling to account the powerful who act in selfish ways. Sometimes it is the U.S., sometimes China or Russia, and sometimes, especially lately, it has reprimanded us.

With our current government, we have, more and more, become outsiders at the UN as our representatives continue to act in selfish, greedy, ignorant ways that are only concerned with power and not at all with the concerns of humanity.

Our leader pretends to care about maternal health, but I don’t buy it. When he begins to listen to science, or his own International Co-operation Minister, and act in ways that are up to the world’s standards, then maybe I’ll believe. But as long as he is driven by a radical religious ideology and the tenets of neoconservatism, his compassion is illusory if not altogether absent.

Is the UN perfect? Absolutely not. The first, and I believe most beneficial change, would be to reform the Security Council and eliminate the veto for the World War II victors. If you want to know why the UN is inefficient, why it cannot respond quickly in the face of crisis, you need look no further than the VETO of the Security Council. It is a shame, and one that desperately needs changing.

Has it had scandals? Absolutely yes. But, then again, if we got rid of every institution that had scandals we’d have very few left. The problem with the UN is that it lacks accountability and auditing. Systems need to be put in place to ensure that its branches are audited, its workers are given exit-interviews and that there is some coherent and understandable mechanism transparent to the public.

Why is the UN worthwhile?

The UN provides food assistance, through the World Food Programme (just one of its many programmes) to over 100 million people each year, including 62 million children. It is one of the first aid agencies to arrive when there is famine, natural disaster, or war.

The UN calls us to a higher standard of behaviour, urges compassion for those in need, and aims to move beyond simplistic power politics. It provides a vision for the future and hope to those who live in terror.

The UN opens our eyes to the world around us. It makes it harder to believe that our actions do not have global implications and tears our eyes away from consumerism and reality TV.

Finally, the members of the UN developed and agreed to the Millennium Development Goals, incredibly inspiring statements of purpose for a more just world. That they have not been fulfilled is a matter for Western leaders, like ours, who have paid lip service to them, but don’t really give a shit.

But, as citizens, we can care, we can care a lot, and we can call our leaders to account and demand that they donate the funds necessary to change the world for the better by empowering women, and improving health care, literacy, and the economic position of the world’s poorest.

We can care. We can transition from selfish consumers to aware citizens. We can pick one of the MDGs and run with it, call attention to it, and campaign to get it done. We can do this.

We can.

And, as for Rex Murphy. . I’ve had enough of loud-mouthed, narrow-minded drivel to last me a lifetime.

I choose a positive vision of the future. One filled with peace and compassion and understanding.

I can.

And so can you.

Today marked the conclusion of a Summit to discuss issues surrounding the opening Arctic waters. It didn’t end as well as our Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Cannon, would have liked, according to the Montreal Gazette. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton chastised Mr. Cannon, and by extension, the Canadian government, “for excluding aboriginal leaders and three northern nations — Iceland, Finland and Sweden — from the gathering.”

Mr. Cannon defended his exclusionary tactics by commenting that “Arctic Ocean coastal states have an important stewardship role in the region.” Ah yes, and our Conservative government is doing such a good job with their ocean stewardship – if stewardship means voting against attempts at the recent CITES conference to protect polar bears or rapidly diminishing fish stocks like Salmon and Bluefin Tuna or against banning bottom-trawling fishing vessels, which ravage the ocean’s bottom, not only removing all current life but making regeneration almost impossible.

Yup, Canada is surely a beacon of ocean stewardship, what with Victoria and Halifax still dumping raw sewage into their respective harbours and our careful management of the Atlantic cod fishery. Even our refusal to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples a few years ago shines as an example of stewardship of fragile ecosystems and populations.

We should totally be allowed to take a leadership role on the incredibly fragile Arctic while the EU and aboriginal peoples are excluded from the talks because, well, they actually give a darn about the Arctic as more than another area to exploit as thoroughly as possible, arming it and using it for commercial traffic.

Yup, we are very special indeed.

BTW, here’s a quick link to the GPC policy on the Arctic. Yes, we have one. And while it is called the Green Arctic strategy, we certainly would prefer to avoid that – an outcome the governing parties don’t really seem to mind.