Hijacked

It was refreshing the other day to listen to a report on the conviction of Fujimori, Japanese born former president of Peru, on charges of corruption and murder when he was in office ten years ago. The problem is that in Canada it seems our foreign news is monopolized by our participation in the war in Afghanistan. Yesterday a 21 year old female soldier dead only two weeks into her rotation, to-day 300 Afghan women protesters pelted by stones by an even larger crowd for opposing the new “sanctioned rape” Sharia law. Surely Britain and the United States talk about foreign issues other than Iraq? So Canadian foreign news reporting has been hijacked. The English language Canadian Broadcasting Corporation doesn’t even have a Latin American correspondent although its French language alter ego does. We get virtually no news from Mexico our north american neighbour unless a tourist gets in drug trouble or a hurricane breezes by. Here is a quote from Ian McEwan’s novel "Saturday" in which the protagonist ruminates on the way TV news is handled; “Its part of the new order, this narrowing of mental freedom, of his right to roam. Not so long ago his thoughts ranged more unpredictably, over a longer list of subjects. He suspects he’s becoming a dupe, the willing, febrile, consumer of news fodder, opinion, speculation and of all the crumbs the authorities let fall. He’s a docile citizen, watching Leviathan grow stronger while he creeps under its shadow for protection.”