Conference kaosws::canada

I have a copy right here in my hot little hands.

I'll get your address and advise your of the charges via MAIL.

Cheers,

Pat

This business with the Norse discovery of America seems like a bunch
of hogwash to me...

The Norse sailors may have discovered America, but the certainly didn't
do anything with that discovery.

Speaking of McLeans, I wonder how they survive.  While we were living in 
Europe, we subscribed to McLeans to get news from home.  The first year of our 
subscription was at the Canadian rate (yes we did subscribe from Europe, not 
send a change of address).  When it came up for renewal (possibly the second 
time, I don't remember exactly) the foreign subscription rate was about 3 times 
the local rate; needless to say we were not that desperate and did not renew.

Anyway, we also had a subscription to TIME magazine and it is interesting to 
contrast the two:

  Aside from the price difference (the foreign surcharge for TIME was minimal), 
  the delivery time was radically different.  TIME is simultaneously published 
  around the world at many different locations, including one in Europe (in the 
  Netherlands I believe), with some local content (mostly advertisements) 
  added.  They send the bulk of the material including photos over a satellite 
  link.  We received TIME within the same time domestic customers would.  This 
  is only due to the fact the Canada Post handles 3rd class mail with much 
  higher priority than 1st class mail, IMO 1st class mail should be delivered 
  to any location in the country the next day (Sunday excluded) as is done by 
  the Deutsche Bundespost.  In the case of McLeans we received it approx. 6-8 
  weeks late (usually 2-3 out of order within a few days of each other).  Maybe 
  the new foreign rate included Airmail.

  It is worth your while to compare the quality of the writing, editing, and 
  production in these two magazines.  I would like to believe that we can do 
  anything as well or better than those ...  Americans, but producing a 
  National (International?) magazine is not one of them.

  The political slant/viewpoint between the two magazines is widely different 
  as is to be expected.

  We accuse the Americans to be always inward looking, but I feel that TIME 
  devoted just as much effort to International issues as McLeans did (both of 
  which were dismally little).  Of course for my purposes McLeans served very 
  well as I was trying to get Canadian news.

Needless to say, since returning to Canada I do not subscribe to McLeans as 
other (IMHO better) sources to Canadian news are available.


Bob.


P.S.  As you can tell I am not impressed with the service Canada Post provides, 
      but that is a topic in itself.

...and just what did Columbus do after he stumbled onto the Bahamas in
order to receive the dubious honour of the first white man to discover
America?

	Gold, or the promise of it, was the 'carrot' that prodded 
Columbus' beneficiaries to shower him with more men, ships, and soldiers
to consolidate his holdings in the New World.

	But gold was not available in sufficient quantities in the
Caribbean islands.  Not that that stopped Columbus and his relatives
from setting quotas for every native.

	When the quotas were not reached, the natives were tortured
and killed (not a smart move if you expect to reach your quotas with
a diminishing population).  Men, women and children were slowly roasted
on spits; villages were wiped out; the reign of terror caused some of
the natives to commit suicide.  Eventually, the native population on
most of the Caribbean islands were completely annihilated - all this
occurred while Columbus and his relatives ran the Caribbean 'operation'.

	Of course, we didn't say Columbus was a nice guy.  We said he
was the first white guy to do something with his discovery in the New
World; the first of many.  Most people today are unaware of the cruelty
and genocide that Columbus inflicted on the native population in his
search for gold.  But it was recorded and published by a priest who
accompanied Columbus.  That book is still available.


...now, what about the Norse?  What about St. Brendan, the Irish monk
who probably pre-dates the Norse?  Back to the books, chappies.

$ SET/SOAPBOX=OFF


K_O'Barbunk

One last bit about our hero, Columbus.  A large sum of money was to be
given to the first man on his initial voyage who sighted the New World.
This was an attempt to prevent an imminent mutiny.

Well Columbus never gave the money to the guy in the crowsnest, he
kept it for himself.  Of course, he did prevent the mutiny though.

    Columbus was also known to have stitched people's legs together and
    then nail their heads to the floor. 

    This was of course when he was hanging around his two half step
    brothers Doug and Dinsdale Columbus.

    Glenn

    I believe Columbus' step-son Little Rat-Faced Git Columbus was involved
    also in many of these atrocities.
    
    

From "Destruction of the Indies", by Bartolome de las Casas, published
in 1552:

"He [Columbus] took the money reward for the first sighting of land away
from the Pinta lookout who deserved it; he wrote with glee to his king
of a fight he had staged between a monkey with two paws cut off and a
wild pig.  He had the Caribbean chiefs hanged and roasted on slow-burning
fires to break all resistance against the forced collection of gold."

"...He set a gold quota for every Indian man and woman over 14 years of age,
and if they failed to bring it in, their hands were chopped off.  Those who
fled to the mountains were hunted with dogs.  Men, women, and children
were hacked to pieces and fed to the dogs."

"...The same Indians who had welcomed Columbus and his men as gods presently
started mass suicide through eating poisoned roots.  It is generally accepted
that half the population of the island of Hispaniola [now Haiti and the
Dominican Republic], between 125,000 and half a million people were killed
under the governorship of Columbus and his two brothers.  And within two
generations the entire native population of the Caribbean had been wiped
off the earth."


But the natives had their revenge, what Columbus' men brought back to the
Old World was not just gold.  A new, virulent disease was sited at each
port that his returning ships entered.  Syphilis reached epidemic 
proportions in Europe in the 1530s [from "Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus"].