Rob Hardy / Silhouette Staff

After much deliberation, last week finally marked the implementation of the Canadian penny’s demise. Most Canadians either meet this news with approval or indifference. However, if we look at the matter more seriously (as we should) then it might become apparent that this irreversible decision isn’t such a good thing.

Many of us see pennies as simply a nuisance, something we gladly part with or even throw away, but therein lay the issue that is at the center of this debate. For people who are poor, on welfare or even homeless, money in any denomination has real tangible value. It is what makes the difference between a level of comfort and a life of misery. For people looking to stretch their budget as far as they can, saving a few cents every day over the course of a month literally allows them to keep their heads above water.

But once we enter a certain tax bracket and/or mindset of abundance, it is easy for many consumers to not care about spare change or see how their overall finances balance out.

Such attitudes lead to overconsumption, feeling safely distant from the threat of a negative bank balance. Indeed, it is this careless spending and financial perspective that has spurred Canada toward a reputation of near luxurious wealth. So, as we part with our savings more easily, so too does inflation rise and give way to further credit schemes. How can a mere penny have value for us when we deal with much larger numbers, albeit in abstract terms, when looking at monthly statements?

Yes, it’s absolutely true that producing the penny may not be economically viable anymore, but that is simply because we have priced ourselves beyond reason and common sense. No longer are price increases intermittent – they are taken for granted as “natural” when each calendar year changes. Just calculate how much your first year’s tuition will have gone up by your final year if you need any further proof.

It’s important to remember is that the penny is representational of our larger attitudes and beliefs toward financial solvency. It’s for good reason that the solid saying, “a penny saved is a penny earned” entered our verbal lexicon. Though one-cent tender will soon go the way of paper dollar bills, the lesson still applies, likely all the more as we will continue to see our cost of living rapidly increase.

Harper’s visit to China was less critical than many desired it to be.

Ryan Mallough

Silhouette Staff

 

The building quakes with the explosion of yet another shell. The hallway of a makeshift hospital is lined with the dead. The dying cry out in agony beside them.

Amidst their moans, British-Syrian activist Danny Abdul Dayem begs: “We are not animals. We are people, and we are asking for your help. ... they’re hitting us with rockets for four hours now. They’re going to kill us all. If you don’t help us they’ll kill millions and no one will find out about it. Please someone help us.”

The government-led crackdown on Syria has been allowed to continue for almost a full year. In that time, some 5,400 Syrians, the majority of them dissidents, have been killed, and the total climbs every day.

Doctors and charitable organizations are barred from entering the bombarded city of Homs. In some cases, government forces round up the wounded and execute them.

The international community has yet to meaningfully intervene. The most recent United Nations attempt was vetoed by Russia, a long-term ally to the Syrian regime, and China, who has interests in the region and strong reservations over how the Libyan intervention was handled.

In mid February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper traveled to China to discuss the expansion of trade relations with Canada. Less than three years ago, Harper boasted that he would be disinclined to do business with the Chinese until they fixed their human rights record. An economic meltdown and difficulties in expanding trade with the increasingly isolationist United States have forced Harper to seek markets abroad.

However, while economic in purpose, this trip was the perfect opportunity for Harper to backup his earlier claim – to call out the Chinese on the international stage and stand by his earlier position on Libya – that Canada will not stand by while tyrants massacre their people for dissenting. That economic growth will not come at the price of freedoms and human life.

Yet publicly, our Prime Minister said nothing.

He claims to have discussed the issues behind closed doors – something he could have done with much more potency had Canada not suffered an embarrassing defeat to Portugal for a Security Council seat – and left it at that.

While the prime minister cuddled with pandas and ate spicy pork, Syrians continued to be slaughtered at the hands of their government.

Canada’s silence on Syria is deafening, considering that our government was at the forefront when it came to the international condemnation of Libya, being one of the first countries to impose sanctions, calling for an end to the Ghadafi regime’s rule and supporting and participating in the NATO-led intervention. Yet when Syria openly bombards its citizens for months, we do nothing.

While the right to protect should be of no less value, there are important differences to take into consideration between Libya and Syria. The Syrian terrain is more complex, making operation logistics more of an issue.

The resistance is not as well organized, nor as well armed, and does not control as much territory as the Libyan movement, which likely means that intervention on the resistance’s behalf would need to be on a larger scale. It might even need to be an invasion (possessing somewhat of a stigma in those parts), which is more costly both monetarily and in terms of the human life. Finally, Russia and China, while thawing on the issue, remain staunchly opposed to any Libyan-style operation in Syria, preferring a diplomatic resolution that would see their ally remain in power and thus remain an obstacle.

But how is any of that important compared to stopping a mass murder?

Recently, the “Friends of Syria,” a group comprised of over 60 nations including Canada, met to outline an ultimatum for the Syrian government. Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird noted that Canada would focus on preventing a humanitarian disaster, a gesture Syrians from a year ago would probably appreciate much more than those in the present day.

Some action is better than no action, but friends don’t let friends murder their citizens.

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