Toffees, Telly and Terrorists

I keep finding weird differences between Canada and Ireland, and then forgetting to write about them. For example, the Werthers Original Toffee ads here are set in some random mittel-European country, that vaguely looks like Switzerland. And the toffee makers and the voiceover have a slight German tinge to them.

But Werthers Original are made in England!!!!

Should that be is, Ian?

The bus drivers are really polite here and always say 'good morning' in a really chirpy manner when you stagger on in the morning; and are happy to spend a few minutes waiting for an elderly person to get to their seat etc.

Today, I realised there was something else I was missing. There were a load of gruesome murders in this week. A thirty five year old guy got kicked to death for telling some skangers to shut up on the bus in Edmonton; a guy killed his wife and two kids in Toronto; a twelve year old girl here in Halifax was murdered by her godfather, who then killed himself. Her stepfather found them after beating in the door of the killer, who was a friend of the family.

The girl was buried today.

There was a curious lack of commentary on these events. Curious to a girl who has grown up with the Gay Byrne Show, the Gerry Ryan Show, Liveline, John Waters, Nuala O’Faolain and the entire gamut of Sunday newspaper opinion formers. Who would be frothing at the mouth with the reasons why this rash of deaths had happened.

I used to get annoyed by the cacophony of local, national and random opinions I was subjected to all day every day. Here it’s more peaceful and I get to form my own opinion about things.

Waaaahhhh!!!!

Tonight I've broken my no telly rule (well, I've broken it a bit lately because they're showing Series 5 of the West Wing every night at eight pm on CLT at the moment and that's the series I missed. But tonight I’m also watching the premiere of The Unit, which is the new uber-tv show that’s executively produced by a veritable host of uber-tv people, including David Mamet. And it has the added excitement of random episodes written by Mamet, so you have to check in every week to see if it’s one of his.

A bit like checking the dress rack in Frenchies for that Miu Miu number that sometimes pops up.

So far it’s a Mamet episode and it's very exciting. Afghanistan, laser-guided missiles, American Special Forces led by the guy who plays the President in 24. And then a sub-plot concerning the wives and families at home. Sort of Footballers’ Wives with guns. And people who say Ma’am and Sir all the time.

So far I’m not seeing a lot of Mametology; the 24 influence is showing a bit. Possibly worth a download if you do the technology. I’m trying to do the technology, but I can’t, even though Angela wrote me out line-by-line, moron-proof instructions on how to do it.

I should introduce her to the Irish people who have tried to help me do technology. And failed.

I miss the BBC. You could always just flick over to the BBC when the ads were on so you didn’t have to watch the ads. And then you often stayed because it was Newsnight or a cool documentary about something very English.

Here I have the CBC News at Ten, which is like the ITV News at Ten.

Utter shite. From Kandahar tonight.

It’s all about Afghanistan this week in Canada.

The Canadian forces recently moved south from their initial Afghan base, into Kandahar to take over from the Americans who have moved their troops to Iraq. So far three of them have been killed and another poor guy had an axe buried in his head during a village meeting the other day, by some tribal villager who was ‘upset about the searches of the women’. The soldier had put down his weapon and taken off his helmet as a symbol of trust. The Canadian army say he was in the Taliban. Was. The soldier’s friends shot him dead after the attack.

Canadians are in shock. They are freaking out because firstly, they’re not used to having a couple of body bags coming back a week, and secondly, because they’re worried that the rest of the world is going to think they’re a pack of warmongers. So far I have been saying that firstly, the rest of the world hasn’t clocked that this is happening, and secondly, it would take a lot more than three casualties and some return fire to make the rest of the world think that the Canadian army is like its big brother due south.

The calls for a parliamentary debate are just getting going and so far Harper seems to be playing it reasonably well. However, the Foreign Minister is from Nova Scotia, as are 20% of the current troop deployment, so he must be getting a bit worried, as this province is bearing the brunt of the deaths.

The army is saying they’ve committed to this mission and it’ll be a ten-year process to rebuild Afghanistan. I think it’s got all the makings of Canada’s Vietnam.