WHO REALLY CONDONES THE VIOLENCE?

Editor:

Colombia, is a country of enormous contrasts, of tranquillity and
havoc, of peace and violence. It is the world's second largest
exporter of flowers, including several jet plane loads a day of just
roses during Valentines season. They also export an enormous amount of
coffee, tropical fruits, coal and clothing. Their clothing industry
includes bathing suits featured in last years Sports Illustrated,
swimsuit edition as well as high fashion designs and blue jeans. They
have many economic and internal issues but cocaine and terrorists get
all the international press, not the roses and bikinis.

American consumers demand cocaine and Colombian dealers supply it.
This is not a forced trade imposition on another country it is simply
an open market trade good. In order to address their 'Made in the
U.S.A.' problem the American legislators decided to send military
'aide' to Colombia. Initially this 'aide' package was refused and many
in Colombia balked at the suggestions to kill their own people, spray
pesticides and destroy their own productive farmland policies that
have helped to displace hundreds of thousands of their own people.
Their own internal issues are of greater importance than the relative
merits around the amount of cocaine used in other places.

The foreign legislators were told that if they did not want to receive
any more cocaine to simply stop buying and importing the stuff, "end
of problem." Curb the demand of this commodity from the consumers and
the suppliers will then have no market to sell to, this is an age old
"trade secret" it takes a buyer and a seller to make a trade deal. The
U.S. got a bit upset at this uppity suggestion from a lesser power,
how dare they try and run their own affairs to their own designs.

Through diplomatic pressure Colombia was warned of severe economic
sanctions that would be imposed if U.S. directives were not followed.
Colombia has acquiesced under threatened trade embargoes and tariff
impositions. They have been directed to accept millions of dollars of
loans for which they were then required to buy hundreds of high priced
military helicopters, thousands of litres of herbicides and a variety
of other military paraphernalia, all from the U.S. These are goods
which Colombia truly does not need. The result is that many American
companies have benefited from selling their war goods, including a
chemical corporation that produces and exports some rather potent and
nasty sprays.

Now it is an ill wind that does not blow somebody some good and indeed
the military elite in Colombia has been pleased to play with their new
toys, the American helicopter companies have taken in orders for many
new "whirly birds." The drug cartels, mafia and terrorist groups are
also pleased because these policies keep the price of their commodity
high, and demand has certainly not been abated.

As much cocaine as ever before continues to be shipped and if anything
demand is rising, consumers continue to demand this white powder. The
U.S. drug problem continues unabated. Meanwhile in Colombia there are
thousands of displaced people, damaged cropland and the death of many
individuals. There is a powerful mix of confrontations from competing
interests that include a strong paramilitary, various guerrilla
groups, drug cartels and the mafia.

The saga is continuing, it is a tale that includes terror, and acts of
violence on innocent people. This terrorism in Colombia is financed
and aided by foreign policy makers that have all the characteristics
of fanatics. Are they zealots from another country or are they just
plain morons from a self-righteous nation? By the way what is that
moron's name that claims to be the worlds champion of peace and
security as they export this violence worldwide?

Now just imagine for a moment if this real life story was Canada, it
is not hard to supplant Colombia's experience into our own country.
The Americans consider marijuana a vexatious drug in the same category
as cocaine. Here however, the federal government licenses some farms
to grow high drug grade marijuana for them. Saskatchewan farmers
cultivate thousands of acres of low potency marijuana for the textile
trade, and 'B.C. bud's' cultivation is looked at with askance by the
Canadian legal system.

It is however a highly regarded export product that has a significant
economic contribution to the Canadian economy. If you can imagine
helicopter gun ships taking off from air bases in Williams Lake to go
out and splatter lead from automatic weapons or aerial bombers
spraying pesticides on farms in Horsefly, Soda Creek or Lone Butte ...
if you can imagine more of these helicopters flying out of Regina to
spray farmers and their fields in Weyburn, Moose Jaw and Swift Current
then you can imagine the reality that people in Colombia face on a
regular basis.

Whose problem is this drug problem and where should the solution lie?
Who are the real terrorists, who are the real perpetrators of
violence? What nation is exporting their own brand of terror and
destruction her and around the world? Just ask these questions to the
farmers young son, a hungry lad kicking up dust between his toes along
the country road near Choco, Colombia.

Ask him, these questions as he stops to examine the shell casings
beside a field where his family had a variety of crops growing on land
that has now been sterilised so that nothing grows there. That scene
is there, over there somewhere. It is in a place you have never been
and it is impossible to describe what it is actually like there, but
it could just as easily be here, here just around the corner along
some rural road near Williams Lake, a place where you have been. This
is the reality in Colombia, this is not the six o'clock CNN
interpretation. How do I know this? I've been there, done that as I
walked along those same dirt roads that service the farmers fields in
Colombia. I have also sat in the same restaurant that only months
earlier experienced the devastation of an enormous car bomb killing
many innocent people as they basked in the sun enjoying a meal on an
outdoor patio.

While there smelling the roses, I asked who would do such dastardly
deeds, who supports this kind of violence, who indeed?

Darryl Grams,
Williams Lake