The Besz Dispenser - This Week's Rant

For the week of February 18th, 2000

Back in the U.S.S.R.

It was hard to find the right topic to discuss this week. I mean, with so much in the news, how could I pick just one? Should I talk about the rising gasoline prices (now at a record high, close to 70 cents a litre) or perhaps the shooting in Toronto between 17-year-olds? Maybe I should discuss the fact that a streaming porn web site is in court, because they are being accused of being a "virtual bawdy house," or maybe try to talk about how Russia is killing off Chechnyans like it's bowling on a league night?

Let's go with Russia, because it seems that most people just don't care about the situation.

Now, I have been away for a while and, forgive me if I'm wrong in this assumption, but is everyone ignoring the fact that Russia is in the middle of another civil war? A region of the country wants out and is fighting hard for it, while Russia, who even if they have hit hard times, still has a formidable military, is walking through, pounding on them much like a 10 lb. sledgehammer would crush ants. We bitch and scream about UN peacekeepers going anywhere and imposing our morals but, if a country is killing off its population, which is fighting for their own freedom, well hell, who are we to say or do anything? Does anyone else see a problem with that?

Of course, I understand why we're not in an uproar. There's nothing we want over there. What do you own that's Russian that you simply must have and cannot part with? They have no economy, no food, no oil. It's just more barren wastelands and snow and Russians. Like the Northwest Territories , really, save the Russians. So who really cares? I do, for one. Because I realize they still have a nuclear arsenal just collecting dust over there and they, geographically, are not too far from us.

I don't want to see the Northern Lights that badly, let alone see them and feel my eyes melt. This won't happen, I pray, but they are pounding on the rebels pretty badly and a nuclear explosion would fix the rest. Now, if only the world didn't care if they did that.

But that may be the only reason the UN is not stepping in. Russia stopped talking to the UN after they bombed Yugoslavia and Russia's Chechnya campaign only deepened that divide.

However, do you want to step into a country that you know has its nukes pointed at you? If the UN ever stepped in, it may be the first step towards another war - one that won't be fought with guns or manpower, but with death tolls and fallout. Then who would care about porn or gas prices or kids shooting each other? We'd all be dead.

But to end on a lighter note, maybe we should take a longer look at what's going on in Russia. Because it's not what you know, but what you don't know that will kill you.

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