November 29, 2009: Afghanistan: What are we Doing There? - Generation Next, Part 3 - Manhood for Amateurs

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Today's guest host was Kevin Sylvester

Music

Song: Rasoa
Artist: Madagasgar Slim
Album: Omnisource

Afghanistan: What are we Doing There?

If the mounting toll of fallen soldiers, the controversial re-election of Hamid Karzai and the increasing evidence of Taliban strength in more and more parts of the country weren't enough reasons for Canadians to have serious qualms about our on-going participation in the War in Afghanistan; the allegations that Canadian Forces blindly handed over Afghan detainees to authorities who then tortured the prisoners despite warnings from a Canadian diplomat that that was exactly what was happening may be proving to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

Last week in testimony before a Parliamentary Committee, Canadian Diplomat, Richard Colvin testified that he tried for nearly two years to get someone, anyone, in the Canadian Forces, The Department of Defence, the Department of Foreign Affairs or the Government itself to take note of the Canadian Role in the torture of Afghan citizens. He asserted that he was continually ignored.

So far the Harper Government's response has been to attack the career diplomat's credibility and to dispute that any such warnings were ever issued or that if they were sent they lack credibility. To many, the mood in Ottawa is being characterized as 'shoot the messenger'.

But it is possible that for the average Canadian the suggestion that Canadian Troops were complicit or indifferent to torture is just one more piece of a larger puzzle, what good if any is being accomplished in this war that is now eight years old and has cost billions of dollars and the death of over 130 soldiers. Some observers have gone even further and suggested that the battle for Afghanistan has completely erased a 50-year tradition of the Canadian Forces as peacekeepers.

Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management at the University of Toronto and Director of The Munk Centre For International Studies and the co-author of, The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar. She was in our Toronto Studio. Scott Taylor is Publisher and Editor of Esprit d'Corps Magazine, military analyst and author most recently of Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting. He was in our Ottawa Studio.


Music

Song: First Push
Artist: Devotchka
Album: Little Miss Sunshine Soundtrack

Great Rivalries and The Grey Cup

We here at The Sunday Edition are well aware that this is Grey Cup Sunday. That celebration of the 55-yard-line, three down football and regional junk-food cuisine.

This year, our studio buffet is replete with Montreal poutine and good old Regina perogies (fried in canola oil, of course).

To honour the day, and the game, we have endeavored to bring you the most balanced, un-biased song we could find. We toyed with the thought of playing Go Roughriders and The Alouette March simultaneously - but then decided it would be the equivalent of audio water-boarding.

Then we discovered a better alternative-- Leonard Cohen singing Joni Mitchell's The Jungle Line.

Kevin Sylvester explains just how perfectly this honours the day.

The Game will be played in Calgary. Joni Mitchell was born in Alberta. She grew up in Saskatchewan - and who says Montreal better than (Ladies and Gentlemen) Leonard Cohen?

As if that weren't enough. Montreal and Saskatchewan are rekindling a rivalry that has lain dormant for something like 70 years (it's true - this is the first time in more than 70 years that teams from these cities have met in the big game - for the record, the Montreal Winged Wheelers beat the Regina Roughriders 22-0 in 1931)

Joni and Leonard have a bit of an ancient smoldering rivalry as well. Turns out they had a "liaison" back in the late 60's when they were two young , singing and serenading their way through New York City.

It didn't end well.... although both say they are still friends.

Joni has this to say about poets... "I agree with Nietzsche who said something like: "The poet is the vainest of the vain, the peacock of the peacocks . . . he muddles his waters so that they might appear deep."

She also accused Cohen of stealing his best stuff from Camus and Lorca....Ouch! Cohen has been more subtle - he has referred to Mitchell as a self-proclaimed Beethoven... A rivalry? You bet.

So, to honour the geography and rivalry present in today's matchup, we humbly present Leonard Cohen with his version of Joni Mitchell's "The Jungle Line"

Music

Song: The Jungle Line
Artist: Leonard Cohen
Album: The Joni Letters


"Eating Animals" -- A Conversation with  Jonathan Safran Foer

You might have been a little bit surprised to hear that Jonathan Safran Foer's latest book is a work of non-fiction. After all, he has more than proven that he can make a pretty good living writing novels. His first was based loosely on his own experience as an American teenager travelling in Europe. He took a 3-day detour to Ukraine, to try to find the woman who had saved his grandmother from the Nazis. Six years later, Everything Is Illuminated was published. Words like "dazzling", "hilarious", "tragic", and "genius". Appeared in almost every review. Jonathan Safran Foer was, at the time, twenty-five-years-old.

Three years after that...Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

We accompany nine year old Oskar Schell as he tries to cope with the death of his father on September 11, 2001. It's hard to put down, and it established Safran Foer as one of the great writers of his generation.

His novels explore humanity's attempt to understand suffering, Safran Foer looks at tragedy, and refuses to look the other way.

Turns out that the suffering he saw on his dinner plate was no exception.

Jonathan Safran Foer's latest book, Eating Animals, is the story of his own personal journey to stop eating animals. And it is his best effort to persuade you that you should stop eating them too. It is published in Canada by Little Brown and Company . Jonathan Safran Foer was in our studio in New York.

Music

Song: Let's Go
Artist: Devotchka
Album: Little Miss Sunshine Soundtrack


Listen to Hour One:

Music

Song: From the Bush
Artist: Felix Lajko
Album: A Bokorbol