Our Prime Minister is laughable.

Does Stephen Harper truly think that he has managed to flex some muscle in Asia? Seriously his mutterings of a mad man were barely audible on the big international scene. Sending some “diplomats” to North Korea barely registered with Japan and China—the people with the most interest in the security of Korea. Saying we will not tolerate China’s human rights record at the expense of trade income was not even mentioned in papers over there. China really could care less if Canada wants to be involved or not.

All this flexing—or pretending to—reminds me of another cowboy. Look where he stands on the international level. Two cowboys are making it very hard for the rest of the cowboy nation to be taken seriously. Why whenever I think of cowboys now I can’t help but feel sorry for their lack of intelligence. I’m sure there are some pretty intelligent cowboys out there but when you put those two cowboys in charge it makes a person wonder. Thank goodness we had the insight to only give a minority and we can rid of our cowboy at any given moment. I suspect our cowboy is going to be leaving in late winter early spring 2007. People are just sick and tired of the crap that comes out of parliament hill.

As someone who has lived and worked in China I know that the country is changing. It’s not as fast as some would like but there are ripplings within the people of the country. What I think is happening is China is being smart about how they introduce capitalism and democracy to their country. Unlike Russia who one day just did away with communism I think China is slowly weaning it out. It’s starting with the people on the ground—as most democratic change occurs at the grassroots level.

I listened to my students while there and heard their voices. They are beginning to question the greatness of Mao and the state of communism. Despite all the control the state media is trying to flex the students are getting around it. They are becoming informed students. They are becoming informed when they travel abroad to study, they are becoming informed when they read blogs, and they are becoming informed when teachers like myself go over to China to work and tell them about how our government works.

I’m not saying we should excuse China from their human rights violations but the approach Stephen Harper showed undermines any relationship building with this nation. As some of my readers know I try to let people know about the human rights violations that are occurring around the world as I like to have equality for everyone, but I also understand for each nation there are a serious of approaches to take. With China it is often about saving face. Stephen Harper did not allow for this to happen.

However I also know that China isn’t a stupid nation and will therefore overlook his mad rantings for just that…they’re mad. They know that he is just a lame duck sitting waiting to be removed from office and that the real Prime Minister will back on the scene soon enough. The question is who will be the new Prime Minister. It will be a Liberal—who is yet to be seen.

*Note to my readers--I had written this piece on the way home from work after reading an article in the morning newspaper. After some google news searching my thoughts on Harper and his laughability was confirmed by other news sources. Such as the following two articles in the Globe & Mail.