Dateline: Moscow

My condolences to the victims and their families of the Moscow airport bombing.

While I have yet to read any reports of any groups claiming responsibility for the attack; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know things have been heating up in Chechnya in the last 14 months.

I suspect the vast majority of westerns had no idea just how hot things have been in Chechnya for some time. It has been an issue which western mainstream media has seriously under reported. It I was a cynic, I would suggest the reason for this is that there are no ‘Jews’ involved to condemn… Oh wait, I am a cynic.

crossposted to The Last Exile

Another terror peace activist's mask slips

The Toronto Star carries a fluff piece on a Canadian group seeking to raise funds to send a Canadian contingent boat to sail to the Gaza Strip which is currently under an Israeli naval blockade. Make no mistake, this is most definitely not a ‘humanitarian aid’ mission delivering food, medical or humanitarian supplies to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as Palestinian ‘activist’ Kevin Neish makes very clear, and I quote,

“The goal isn’t to send aid to Gaza, but to break the blockade,” Neish said.

While I realize it is all the rage for the alleged peace activists to go into full-scale touchy-feelie towards the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but let us not loose sight of the fact, all Hamas has to do to come in from the international cold and end the Israeli naval blockage is;

1) Denounce the use of terrorism to further political ends
2) Amend the Hamas charter so the destruction of Israel is not part of Hamas’ political mandate.
3) Return Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit to Israel.

Three simple actions which would cost the Hamas leadership nothing but probably gain them just about everything which would radically improve the quality of life for ordinary Palestinians, and yet, Hamas refuses to succumb to ‘international pressure’ to do the only moral and right thing under the circumstances.

These Israeli demands are not outrageous or beyond the pale, and if people such as Neish, were really concerned for the welfare of the Palestinians under Hamas control - he’d be first in line in bringing pressure against Hamas rather than wasting his time attempting to run a blockade which is a civilized response to indefensible barbarism. Neish and his fellow-travellers won't attempt to apply political pressure to Hamas simply because no one does peace activist quite like a Palestinian supporter.


Cross posted to The Last Exile

Old Sins really do cast long shadows

I was contacted last month and entered into discussions about the possibility of writing the memoirs of an Israeli military hero from the 1948 War of Independence. The contract was officially signed last week but I have been working on the project steadily since taking possession of documents in late December. How this project came into my hands is a bit of what I call Jewish geography at play. Needless to say, if my Zionist credentials were suspect, it wouldn't have come to pass at all.

I have been working crazy hours as I have a March 30th deadline and I cannot work properly unless I am left entirely alone and undisturbed. Call me crazy and anal but being interrupted a non-stop stream of innocuous questions like - 'where is the milk?' and 'did you wash my gym clothes or black shirt' or 'what can I eat?' (boy code for will you make me a snack) or 'where are my boots' just ruins my concentration and negatively impacts my ability to work. All of which goes a long way in explaining why my grammar is often wanting and suspect in blog posts that are, more often than not, written between constant questions and non-stop interruptions.

I go to bed around 7pm and get up at 1am and work on the project till around 6am. Then I get dressed and go to my 'day' job until 4pm. I go home and cook for the boys and literally fall into my bed. Most days I do not even see the hands of the clock move to strike 7pm. I tell myself, and the men in my life, it will all come to an end – one day.

All of which is the 'now' reason blogging has been nearly non-existent. For some one like me, who often considers geopolitics and war as a kind of foreplay; reading the memories of the man who planned the battle of Haifa, fought with the Soviet Red Army and was part of the Anders Aliyah is far more compelling than anything going on currently in the blogsphere.

I have documents written by Polish government officials that need to be translated into English since my Polish is beyond wanting. The letters are the 'official' response to a number of questions regarding anti-antisemitism in the Anders Army. No biggie or so I thought. I work with a number of Polish Canadians who I am quite friendly with, and who I thought, I could call upon to ask for assistance.
All of the Poles I approached are my age and born approximately 20 years after WWII ended and were initially happy to be of assistance – until they read through the documents. To say, I was more than a little taken back by their collective and often downright venomous response to the idea that any Pole could commit an act of 'anti-antisemitism' – at any time in history - is the understatement of the new year.
Consequently, I have been 'exposed' and stand accused of being an integral part of an international conspiracy designed to smear and besmirched the Polish people and their history with the most vile and baseless of lies. I have never heard so many 'you people' or been the subject of such venom in 48 years of living. Not one of the Poles I approached and had cordial relations with for the last ten years are now speaking to me. Not because of what I said per say but because of what I represent to them. There is an irony here which is not lost upon me, which is simply this; most of my life I have not been Jew enough for some, and now in middle age, I find I am far too Jew for others.

And who knew in 2011; Jews are still not to be trusted and are innately disloyal and can always be counted on to shit in the hand which feeds or shelters them. Or that Jews are cowardly by nature and cannot fight their way out of paper box and who would sell their mothers or first born for a dollar?

The reason my hero didn't publish his memoirs before he died was that he felt once his memoirs were published; his existence in Canada could be threatened by some crazy Pole with an axe to grind and he wouldn't even see the loon coming. I thought he was exaggerating - now I am not so sure he didn't have a perfectly valid point. Old Sins really do cast long shadows...

crossposted to The Last Exile

Red-lines and no lines

Yesterday, a young man plead guilty to intending to cause an explosion which potentially might have caused harm, death or damage to property.

Yesterday, Khalid, now 23, was sentenced to 14 years for his role in a homegrown terror cell known as the Toronto 18, which was busted in June 2006 for plotting to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto. But he was given credit for his three years and three months spent in pre-trial custody, meaning his sentence amounts to an additional seven years behind bars. He will be eligible for parole in 28 months. Khalid was ordered to provide a DNA sample and was given a lifetime weapons prohibition. In May, he pleaded guilty to intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm, death or damage to property. He was the first member of the group to admit the existence of a bomb plot.

I would contend without the active guidance and participation from undercover agents our clowned princes of Canadian terrorism would not had the first clue as to how to build a truck bomb or where to buy the supplies, but be that as it may be; there were no victims, no property was damaged and no lives were harmed except his own and his co-accused. He was sentenced to a 14 year stretch in her majesty's goal. I get that we need to be 'tough' on terrorism as a deterrent and I understand the societal message that terrorism is a red line which cannot be crossed and expect leniency.

And this is where I juxtapose. First the scenario:

It was revealed during the trial that in October 2006, a woman in her 30s woke up in Alves's bed, bruised and bleeding after an evening at a downtown Vancouver nightclub. The married woman — who cannot be identified — said she had no recollection of meeting Alves the night before. Medical testing confirmed she had had sexual intercourse and found traces of alcohol and sedatives in her system. The woman told the court her will to live had been drained because of what happened to her and that she was unable to feel safe or to be intimate with her husband.

The sentence.

The former owner of a Burnaby, B.C., pub has been handed a nine-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to sexual assault in a case that prompted criticism of the police from the convicted man's lawyer. Fernando Manuel Alves, 46, had faced four charges of sexual assault and one charge of administering a noxious substance.

The justice actually called it a 'crime of opportunity'. Imagine that. Then think of your daughters, your wife, your mother, your aunts, your grandmothers are all just breathing living walking around crimes of opportunity waiting to happen.

Yes, we need to be tough on terrorism, but what of the other red lines, red lines which are crossed with frightening regularity which leaves an actual trail of victims? Where is the punitive part of the sentence, where is the deterrent value to a 9 month conditional sentence?

The cold cruel light of day is this; if Khalid had used serial rape of women as his 'jihad' he would have walked out of prison a free man yesterday, and who knows - perhaps the judge would have accused him of a one time 'lapse of judgment' or maybe the Justice would have called it merely a 'crime of opportunity'.

Forgive me for feeling somewhat bitter since I, my daughters, my mother, my aunts, my cousins, my neighbours, my co-workers, and even the lady working late at the corner variety store are 1000 times more likely to be a victim of rape than a victim of political terror in Canada and thinking its long past time for the legal system to start treating sexual assault with the seriousness this grave and heinous crime deserves.

Rise of Elder Porn

I really have never worried about growing old. Staying alive long enough to grow old seemed much more the challenge. I suppose I never really worried about it as I had the example of my great-grandmother. Decades before the term was coined she was a truly a giant among cougars. She died at 79, while getting ready for her ‘hot date’ – her words, not mine.

Mention her name to my mother and her blood pressures rises even though the woman has been dead for 33 years. She was a woman who ignited strong passions and evoked extreme reactions from anyone who passed through her view. In fact, I remember bringing up her name to my other great-grandmother which is how I learned the Yiddish word for whore. Of course, when I asked Bubby what Zoyneh meant she told me ‘party girl’ and not to use such language.

She wore men’s suits and fedora’s long before Marlene Dietrich took to film. Even though she spent decades in English Canada she never lost her heavy Parisian accent. My young cousins and I learned early in life never to leave our young male friends within mauling distance or unattended in her company. I realize now she kept her looks decades after most of her peers lost theirs. If anything, I have her genes to thank for others so rarely guessing my actual age. I always felt she was a woman who was born out of sync with her times and never more so then when I happened across this Time Magazine on the rise of Elder Porn in Japan.

Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that's because he's kept his part-time job — as a porn star.

Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name. He prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years. And in his double life, Tokuda arguably embodies the contemporary state of Japan's sexuality: in surveys conducted by organizations ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the condom-maker Durex, Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. A WHO report released in March found that 1 in 4 married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all.

Those figures were attributed to the stresses of Japanese working life. Yet at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with "elder porn" one of its fastest-growing genres.

Tokuda is rare among Japanese porn stars in that his name has become a brand. The Shigeo Tokuda series he has just completed portray him as a tactful elderly gentleman who instructs women of different ages in the erotic arts, and he boasts a body of work far more impressive than most actors in their prime.

Tokuda's exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an "old man" series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry. "The adult-video industry is very competitive," says Glory Quest p.r. representative Kayoko Iimura. "If we only make standard fare, we cannot beat other studios. There were already adult videos with Lolitas or themes of incest, so we wanted to make something new. A relationship between wife and an old father-in-law has enough twist to create an atmosphere of mystery and captivate viewers' hearts."

Director Gaichi Kono says the eroticism of elders is captivating to younger viewers. "I think that, as a subject, there is this something that only an older generation has and the young people do not possess. It is because they lived that much more. We should respect them and learn from them," says Kono passionately. But Tokuda stresses the appeal of his work to an audience of his peers: "Elderly people don't identify with school dramas," he says. "It's easier for them to relate to older-men-and-daughters-in-law series, so they tend to watch adult videos with older people in them."

My great-grandmother was not truly an immoral woman but rather an amoral one and that being so, I am not sure grandmere, whose life long motto seemed to be ‘no man safe, no marriage sacred’, would have gone in for daughter/father-in-law thingy – now a career as aging Diva in the porn industry would have probably suited her just fine.

Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward "mature women" has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are "mature women" films.

Ryuichi Kadowaki, director of Ruby Inc., which specializes in mature-women titles, says that when the company started offering the genre a few years ago, the term referred to actresses in their late 20s, and that last year it was expanded to those in their 70s. The company believes the advantage of mature titles is their enduring appeal. "Adult videos with young actresses sell well only in the first three months after the release," Kadowaki explains. "On the other hand, mature-women films enjoy a steady, long-term popularity, which after 10 years or so might lead to a best seller." And then there are the cost savings. A popular young actress can earn up to $100,000 per film, while a mature actress is paid only $2,000.

The market for elder porn has doubled over the past decade, according to Kadowaki. "In view of [Japan's] aging society," he adds, "I think that in the future, we will see a steady increase in demand."

Ah - sigh, if only she was born 30 years later I might have received a legacy other than her genes…