If this ain't child porn, what is?

There's a story on view at Counterpunch today about how parents in Honduras are sending children as young as seven years old off on a hopeless journey in hopes of gaining entry to the USA.

The Farm Manager and I, who have five children between us, sat under the apple tree and tried to fathom what scale of desperation would have to envelope us before we thought sending a seven year old off on an unaccompanied illegal road trip of thousands of miles would be a good idea.

It is unfathomable.

Yet those Honduran children keep showing up at the US border, only to be clapped into squalid camps and eventually sent back to Honduras.

While this is going on, Messrs Harper and Baird continue to suck up to the government of Honduras, an illegal government that seized power from the democratically elected Zelaya in 2009. Not only do we suck up to them, we legitimize them with free trade deals.

Why?

Well, when our foreign policy isn't being dictated by the Likudniks, it's being dictated by Canada's "extractive sector".  Yessiree, there's a few Canadian mining conglomerates, or more properly, international mining conglomerates registered on Canadian stock exchanges, who stand to do well exploiting resources in Honduras.

So the fact that post-Zelaya Honduras is such a hell-hole that parents voluntarily submit their seven year old children for an illegal ride to Texas means nothing in the big picture.

After all, some "Canadian" mining conglomerates stand to make a fortune there...

Canada's new best friends

Once upon a time Canada was seen as a force for good in this world. We were peace-keepers and honest brokers.

Those were the days when young Americans sewed a maple leaf to their backpacks before setting out on their international adventures.

They don't do that anymore. The ascent of the Harper gang has been a game changer.

Last year Canada entered into free trade agreements with Honduras and Columbia. Those are the kind of free trade partners that the Harperites are willing to court.

According to Amnesty International Colombia "suffers a dire human rights situation." Oh well then, that would be the kind of partner we want to cultivate.

Writing in Counterpunch today, Nick Alexandrov paints an even bleaker picture of Honduras. Since the coup that toppled their democratically elected government just before Harper inked that free trade agreement, the situation there for workers, union organizers, and human rights activists has grown desperate indeed.

Again, this seems to be the kind of partner Harper is comfortable cosying up with for a free trade agreement.

Nevermind that we have now had 25 years to realize that the granddaddy of free trade agreements, the one Reagan and Mulroney signed back in 1987, was the beginning of the end for Canada's industrial sector.

And while Canada has always had a good relationship with Israel, the wholesale sucking up to the Likud crowd by the Harper gang has undermined Canada's credibility throughout the Middle East and beyond.

It's not enough that Foreign Minister Baird travels the world with his "personal" Chabad Lubovitch Rabbi in tow. Both Baird and Harper have gone out of their way to claim that no country in the world is a better friend to Israel than Canada.

Forget the occupation, nevermind the settlements, Canada will out-do even the AIPAC-addled US Senate and Congress to claim slavish adherence to the Likud party line.

It's as if Peace Now and the 70% of the Israeli population who want peace with the Palestinians don't exist.

Friends don't let friends build illegal settlements.

So forget all that peace-and-love Trudeau-era stuff. We're not peace-keepers anymore. We're not honest brokers.

And if you're planning to travel abroad, sew a Quebec flag to your backpack instead.

The Canadian one doesn't cut it anymore.