Letters

Canada’s UN votes

On November 29th, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, [CJPME] released a statement about Canada’s votes on six similar United Nations resolutions.

Resolution 10 concerned “the inalienable rights of Palestinians.” Number 11 was “about the continued support for the Division for Palestinian Rights at the UN.” About 100 countries voted in favor of these two resolutions. Canada voted against them, along with Israel, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, the US, and Australia.

Resolution 12 pertained to “Special Information on the Question of Palestine at the UN.” Number 13 concerned “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.” Number 14 discussed the “UN’s position on the status of Jerusalem.” The final resolution refers to “Israel settlements on the Occupied/ Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. and occupied Syrian Golan Heights.”

About 100 countries voted in favor of resolutions 12 to 21. Countries voting against the above four resolutions were as follows: Canada, Israel, the US, Marshall Islands, and Palau. Australia did not vote on the last four resolutions.

It is incomprehensible to me and most Canadians that Canada would vote against these resolutions. In 2014 Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, with Israel’s modern and powerful military air and ground forces, invaded Gaza, killing about 2,000 Palestinian citizens, including women and children. Thousands more were maimed or injured. Who in Canada is responsible for voting with Israel and the US for a war to deny the citizens of Palestine of their right to live in peace as democratic citizens in their own land?

Leo Kurtenbach
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

That Meatonomics Book

Your (Jan. 2016) review of D. R. Simons’s book, Meatonomics, is propaganda for veganism. It is not without merit, telling for example, truths about the subsidization of the meat industry, which should be stopped. It is also true that over-consuming meat is unhealthful, but that’s only part of the story.

It is essential today to realize that carbohydrates (especially sugar) shorten life expectancy far more than proteins or any fats. Even mainstream medicine now admits that they were wrong all along to promote a low-fat diet. Even saturated fats are not detrimental. Sugar is the villain behind the “metabolic syndrome” that worries us all today, leading to diabetes. The Paleo Diet—mainly fat and protein—has health benefits that Simons’s book reviewer does not acknowledge.

Mainstream medicine misguided us so long about diet that it’s hard to take their advice seriously anymore. However, we can trust archaeologists as scientists, and they say that wherever hunters adopted agriculture, life expectancy shortened by several years. Meat is more healthful than grain food.

Besides, as Alan Savory has shown, herds of animals are necessary to maintain the quality of soil. All around the world, desertification is taking place, and not just because of global warming. If you re-introduce herds of wild animals that roam around, they stir up soil the right amount and leave droppings that restore its quality. So let’s eat more bison.

Carol Wells
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Peace Magazine Apr-Jun 2016

Peace Magazine Apr-Jun 2016, page 5. Some rights reserved.

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