The Syrian Crisis Silver Lining

Naked power wielding can be neither transactional nor transforming, only leadership can be.
James MacGregor Burns, Leadership, p.20

At the time of this writing, the European Union's population is over 500 million people, spread through 28 member states. There has been a lot of talk of late of how it is not going to survive. How there are just too many different ethnic groups to get past their differences, not to mention the task of getting past the past. The Oracle of Ottawa has never put too much weight on that kind of defeatist talk. Due to its radical make up and brilliant framework, the European Union is probably the strongest group of nation states in the world today since the Roman Empire.
 

The European Union proves its 'metal'...

 The Oracles early beliefs got an immeasurable lift this morning while watching his local cable news channel. The first reports that Germany had thrown open the doors to the influx of Syrian refugees greatly made the Oracles day. I even have a theory how it may have happened behind the scenes. Europe is a very old place. There exist within it many ancient and noble families of nearly unimaginable lineage. Many of them know that they have had many relatives that went on the N'th Crusade at some time in the Middle Ages, never to return. Then it dawned on someone, that the descendants of their long lost relatives were now at their very gates. Then the breaker tripped.

However it came to happen, the Oracle of Ottawa wishes to extend his most heartfelt congratulations to the parties involved. It is the middle of the Labour Day weekend here in Canada. We are in the middle of a very bitter and ugly Federal General Election. For the last ten years we have been suffering under a neo-con wack ball right wing revolution in the form of the 'Harper Government'. Since the opening of the gates in Europe this morning the polls and the opinion surveys have put the 'Harper Government' in deep third place from first place. The people are in the streets in Canada, from one end of it to another. And that is something that hardly ever happens.

Who ever made the decision to throw open the gates, must know that the decision will have far reaching positive consequences here in Canada and in turn, later on for the European Union. It is certainly going to help a nice young man by the name of Justin Trudeau become Prime Minister of Canada on October 19th, 2015. The EU will finally be able to deal with someone with more than half a brain when it comes to the weighty matters of Canada - EU affairs. Discourse and engagement will be returned, hopefully along with Canada's past reputation. And he promised to fast track the influx of Syrian refugees into Canada starting on day one, to the tune 25,000 in the first year, plus the fast tracking of the community private sponsorships which will probably add up to way more than 25,000.
 

 Hell, one hundred thousand Syrians spread across Canada wouldn't even be noticed. Along with the infinite water, snow, rocks and trees, we have tons of open room. Then I figure that the British Commonwealth nation members will all get on the band wagon, in five ten years we will be wondering what all the fuss was originally about... As the Oracle of Ottawa wraps up this small missive he is listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on You-Tube, the Karajan recording of course, and he knows with complete certainty that their is nothing that Western Civilization cannot 'sort'.  

Rammstein - Waiting For The Opera

Even if my pencil doesn't do justice to the model, my intention always does.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Grammar, IV, 58

It would probably come as a great shock to most of my Dear Readers that if you asked the Oracle of Ottawa who was the greatest rock band in the world today at the time of this writing, the Oracle would have to reply instantly; Rammstein! Even though the Oracle of Ottawa is six years older than Till Lindemann, and has seen very many of the most awesome rock bands of all time in his misspent youth, including the first seven tours of Canada's greatest rock band Rush, the Oracle stands by his choice.

Till Lindemann

Rammstein was in Canada in the recent past, out on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. The Oracle of Ottawa seriously considered attending, one last big blowout in honour of his misspent youth. But alas, age and the serious misgivings of my significant other forced me to change my plans. It was a good thing too. The weather of the night of the concert was still over 85 degrees. When the Oracle saw the clips on You Tube and on the CBC of the actual blow out event he was relieved that he wasn't there. It was insanely hot and the Oracle at his advanced age would have surely wilted as a delicate flower.

The Oracle always tells anyone who will listen that Rammstein is much, much more than just a flashy rock band. Many of their works are going to be standards of German classical Leid in the centuries to come. You should see the strange looks the Oracle gets when he lets that one off in public! Although you can't even easily buy a Rammstein CD and it is impossible to get the concert DVD's in North America the Oracle strongly believes that we haven't seen nothing yet. 

What impresses the Oracle the most is the utter commitment of the members of Rammstein to their art. They will undergo any discomfort and social moral restraint to get the desired effect across. All of the members at some point have suffered personal injury in their performances that would put many of today's Rock and Roll Hall of Famers out of commission for ever. But again the Oracle of Ottawa strongly believes that there is much greater stuff to come. Like a full and serious Wagnerian style opera. The Oracle strongly believes it is in Till to bring us a stunning modern German opera in the greatest classical German tradition. The Oracle feels that the subject matter will pretain to ancient German archetype with the effects of the New World Order on the fate of the world....

Postscript: Could you imagine Geddy Lee or Mick Jagger going this far out on a limb for their art? Till can make the baddest Academy Award winning Joker look like a harmless cub scout! Now that is true art...

'Harper Government' - Dissing Germany

But life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World As Will And Idea, Volume I, p. xv

For all you people of the Federal Republic of Germany  who are scouring the blogs to really find out what the hell was going on in Canada on August 15, 2012 on the arrival of your Chancellor, Angela Merkel and the utter shit storm of controversy it caused, especially in Canada, well, you arrived at the right blog. The Oracle of Ottawa was determined to give all this gonzo reporting a break this summer, it was all going so well until I saw the coverage, or rather the deplorable lack of it on the local television networks.

Angela Merkel - Uber Frau

If you German people ever wonder what Germany looks like to someone outside Germany and outside the European Union, let the Oracle of Ottawa give you his view. You guys simply have one of the most competent and able leaders of any democracy on the planet Earth today. The Oracle of Ottawa really likes Angela Merkel! The Oracle of Ottawa really believes the world view that she is the defacto leader of the European Union. Believe me you could do a lot worse...like we are right now at this point in our history.

Canada is a nation of the Western world. Our history and descent is that of Western Civilization. People of German descent make up over ten percent of Canada's present population! You can check that here. Therefore, if the Oracle of Ottawa was Canadian Prime Minister, your leader would have had not only the Mounties in the red surge, but a full military honour guard and an excellent band playing your national anthem as your duly elected leader descended from her plane! If she would have declined, her aircraft would have been taxied into a private hanger, and there would not have been any coverage at all! As you can see from the clip of the arrival it was all a hell of a disgrace! The Oracle of Ottawa was appalled and utterly disgusted.

It seems that the present 'Harper Government' is more intent, for what ever reason, to emulate Bejing instead of Berlin! And you believe the Oracle of Ottawa, there are a whole lot of Canadians who do not go along with this at all! The Oracle of Ottawa has been hoping for closer ties with the European Union since its full inception. Canada has pissed away a wonderful opportunity to be aligned with the biggest economy and hegemon on the Earth today!  The Oracle of Ottawa would rather be European in outlook and fortune than to be Chinese or Asian in any degree! (Damn peasants!)

People in Europe must be wondering why the 'Harper Government' is so hell bent on sucking up, at every opportunity to the Peoples Republic of China. Well let the Oracle of Ottawa fill you in on that. The Chinese government, through many and deep and complex entrapment's, all but "owns" the 'Harper Government', if you follow my drift. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa knows how to exploit the old white guys "ricer" fantasies! It is blatant, nasty, lewd and visceral. The Oracle of Ottawa has seen it in action himself in Ottawa! Less than 1000 metres from CSIS headquarters!

And of course, when had by the short hairs, the hearts and minds of those owned follow, don't they? Can I be any more frank than that? I think not. The Oracle of Ottawa imagines what these talks could have led to...Imagine traveling from the West Coast of Canada to the edge of the old Soviet Union on just one passport! Imagine the European Union with Canada in it! The Oracle of Ottawa gets an incredible erection just thinking about the hordes of high dollar European Union tourists that would surely be the result! But it seems that the 'Harper Government' prefers the certain superiority over hordes of loud, coarse, low dollar,Chinese peasants in their unending lines of tour buses... As is commonly known in the best places in Europe, there really is no accounting for taste, is there?

How disgusting is this? There will be no trade agreement of any kind with the European Union. The Peoples Republic of China simply will not allow it!