We have visited Paris, France several times now and it is a beautiful city. The people are friendly and helpful when you wander about. We spent most of our time in the middle of the City where all the historical buildings and other items are located. Walked up to the Arc du Triomphe and viewed the city from its ramparts. Toured the Eiffel Tower and viewed Paris spread out before us in all its beauty. Every night at the Arc du Triomphe the French remember their war dead.
"A daily ritual pays tribute to the Great Dead: each evening, at six-thirty, a flame is rekindled by one of the nine hundred associations of former combatants regrouped under the association La Flamme sous l’Arc de Triomphe. During the Occupation, this daily kindling rite was performed unperturbed."
http://www.arcdetriompheparis.com/
The carnage wrought upon Paris is a sin against humanity even more disgusting than the wrecking of the ancient monuments. What right does a group of people have to destroy what has survived through the millenia and that includes people as well as the artifacts of civilian life. If they are an army then get out in the field and fight like men instead of hiding amongst civilians and blasting themselves and everyone around them to pieces.
I am very much in support of Russia joining in this fight against ISIS, Jean Chretien has that right, and with the combined forces of the world we can eliminate them on the ground in the Middle East. But they have already infiltrated into the minds of youth around the world; incited them into thinking that their way of life is glorious. For every ISIS soldier we destroy on the battlefield we know that there are hidden "soldiers" out there waiting to don their suicide suits and destroy whatever they can. A new way of warfare - destroy what your families have created through the sweat of their brows to pass down to you - this inciting of youth to do destruction in their own neighbourhoods.
How do we reach those youth who have become radicalized and believe that our way of life is decadent? Education is perhaps the key. The rights of people to live their life in a manner that suits them so long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. What would our ancestors have thought of these radicals? I rather think that radicalism isn't really anything new. There have always been groups of people who banded together in a destructive way without regard even for property that they might one day inherit. But what drives them? Anger, greed, desire for friendship and there I think is perhaps the problem; the human need for society. Our society isolates people one from another as we become addicted to on line communication. But not everyone aspires to damage the lives of others. What makes the difference? We need to find that out? We need to discover why some people become radicalized. But more importantly we need to have our youth working; too many have acquired skills that they are unable to use; that causes frustration. Entry level jobs are few and typically those jobs did tend to be government but our last government eliminated those pretty quickly with their one track mind of Oil! Oil! Oil!
To me that should be the top priority of our new government; getting the youth working. Find the money by increasing the GST back up to 7% or even 8%. Fill the government coffers so there is an ability to create meaningful jobs. We have a huge country to tame and the youth have the ability to do that. They are natural entrepreneurs willing to risk in their early working lives to build up new industries for Canada. A one track economy of oil does not work for us and for that the Conservatives have lost my vote for quite a while I suspect. Too much money was wasted trying to get Keystone off the ground; trying to run pipelines through BC. If there is a need then there is a way but no one can see the need with millions of gallons of oil in surplus. Reinvent the wheel; come up with new industries to employ Canadians.
Perhaps our wealthiest Canadians could think about building some of these boats/planes that our navy/air force needs and gifting them to the country in return for a tax credit.
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