I’m sure that many of you know the story of how a little Dutch boy saved his country by putting his finger into a leaking dike? Well, it looks like the other NATO countries can breath a sigh of relief now that the Dutch have decided to step forth and hold their position in Afghanistan. Not that the Dutch had a lot of other choices since their erstwhile wimpish partners; the Germans, the Italians and so on weren’t willing to put their troops on the firing line.

If the Dutch had pulled out, there would have been a stampede for the exits as the other liberal democracies rush to abandon the people of Afghanistan to religious fundamentalism. The idea that they would have stayed for anything so idealistic as protecting their so-called values and? fulfilling their obligations is laughable when it comes to shedding blood, especially their own.

Bravo for the Dutch! The odds for the Afghan people have just risen that much more despite the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the liberal democracies.

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You know how some movies are made and then pushed out into theatres without being seen beforehand by reviewers? That shows you how much confidence that the studio has in its product. It’s much the same with this book which is a novelization of the movie that came out this summer; the author is using Daniel Josephs as a pseudonym.

That might explain a couple of errors in the book, one of the more glaring where he describes their jet as going at 200 mph. Sheesh! Ok, but is the book a total loss? Nope, it’s serviceable, it tells the story pretty well unlike other novelizations I’ve read in the past and you can quickly read it through in about 3-4 hrs. Good enough if you want something that engages those brain cells that are still awake after a rough day.

If you’ve seen the movie…avoid this like the plague…no need to lose precious time.

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The Siege of Mecca refers to an incident that occurred almost 30 years ago when a large group of religious fanatics (or the misguided) under the leadership of a man named Juhayman al Uteybi seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca to help fulfill a prophecy that the Mahdi had returned. The book recounts the origins of the plot to seize the Grand Mosque and the subsequent Saudi response.

I’m not sure which is more fascinating in the telling; the origins of the plot or the almost comical and fumbling response by the Saudi royal family to this challenge to their authority? Trofimov does an excellent job of showing how riven and intertwined the Saudis are when it comes to religion. This extends from not only the beginning of the House of Saud’s rise to power when they relied on the support of the religious establishment but also to the present-day where their actions are constrained or heavily influenced by that same religious establishment. The House of Saud, as part of the Sunni majority, also has to deal with a significant Shiite minority which was (after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran) then flexing its newfound muscle.

One of the key points to take away from this book is how weak the House of Saud’s grip is on their country. Right after I read this book, I again watched (part of) the movie Lawrence of Arabia and in the scene near Wadi Rum you can see how important it is that you wheel and deal with various players in the country in order to gain and retain power. In the case of the character Auda abu Tayi it’s the promise of gold. Saudi Arabia, as far as I can tell, is not a strongly patriotic or nationalistic country; it’s a monarchy with a small military ruling over peoples whose first allegiance is not to their rulers but to their own brand of religion or to their tribe.

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A couple of days ago I stopped by Best Buy at Bay & Dundas to return something and on the way out noticed a new bin that accepts batteries! Yep, BB along with a company called Greentec is now offering recycling services for batteries, cartridges, and so on. Interestingly enough, they will also take back CDs and DVDs. That’s pretty impressive since I’ve always felt guilty about throwing away all of those AOL CDs.

So, I am not sure how widespread this collaboration is but it’s nice to know that there is an option to schlepping all the way to MEC on King.

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Good news for those of you in Ontario who are in the market for a new bicycle helmet! A couple of weeks ago, the McGuinty government actually lived up to a campaign promise (where’s that calendar of mine?) and struck off the Provincial Sales Tax for bikes and bicycle helmets as of December 1st. There is a condition that the PST still applies on bikes over a grand. The tax cut is to encourage more bike riding, obviously.

I’m not sure how many more bicyclists we’ll see out there because of this tax cut but I’m pretty sure that it won’t hurt.

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The screwdriver-stabbing bicyclist was caught several days ago. I’m going to quote from the CTV.ca website:

Toronto police have made an arrest?in a violent road rage incident last week where a driver was stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver. The incident took place downtown, near College and McCaul Streets on Friday at around 9:45 a.m.

Police said a male driver abruptly cut off a male cyclist by making a left-hand turn onto College. The cyclist was not hurt but nonetheless, exchanged words with the driver once he caught up to him. The cyclist allegedly then pulled out a screwdriver and stabbed the driver several times in the neck and face through the open vehicle window.

The driver suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries. He was transported to St. Michael’s Hospital for treatment. The cyclist left his bike behind and?fled the scene on foot.

Yonan Inwia, 34, is facing five charges including aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm and three weapons-related charges.

Personally, I wish that the police were just as diligent on cracking down on everyone; bicyclists and drivers.

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Last week, I watched a CBC Marketplace episode on battery recycling in Canada. Surprisingly, years ago I knew the spokesperson Susan Antler, for the battery recycling program that the show “ambushed”, through a passing acquaintance. Susan runs an environmental marketing firm called “Visions of Utopia” and she helped to bring the battery recycling program to Canada. When it first started up, I was very skeptical about it because it only dealt with rechargeable batteries which is only a very very small segment of the overall battery market in Canada.

Marketplace nailed Susan on the fact that rechargeable batteries only made up about 10% of the overall 550 million batteries that Canadians buy and use every year and we don’t even recycle all of the rechargeable batteries anyways so tons of batteries, both rechargeables and non-rechargeables, are dumped in landfills. Susan looked a bit foolish when she asked if the interview was being taped or not. Duh! What did she think the standlights, cameras and mike boom were there for?!

To be fair to Susan, the battery recycling program was only set up by those companies who made rechargeables. If you take a closer look at who sits on the Board of the program you will see that Duracell and Energizer are notably absent. I don’t think that the program was a do-good smokescreen by the industry as Marketplace and the environmentalist that they interviewed allege. I think that the Duracells and Energizers of the world simply ignore the problem. They’re probably snickering at the guys who are sitting on the recycling program’s Board right now.

Perhaps it is time for government (i.e. the people who represent you…well, at least here in Canada) to get off of their butts and levy a special tax on companies such as Duracell and Energizer in order to fund facilities to properly recycle these little environmental timebombs? In the meantime, do what Marketplace has suggested such as using rechargeables and finding facilities to recycle them and, if there aren’t any in your area, agitate for them.

For those in the downtown Toronto core, you can go to the MEC on King St. West and drop off your batteries there. No, you don’t have to be a member to do so. I do it every once in a while when the number of dead batteries here start to pile up. There is also a store on the Danforth that specializes in environmental products that will take your batteries. That info is very old so the MEC is probably your best bet.

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No, it wasn’t me! I wouldn’t have left my bike behind!

Saw this article early this morning and it was a real surprise because normally you don’t see this sort of thing happening. You always hear of close calls and threats of assault by drivers on cyclists but this is some role reversal. On another bike site that I occasionally peruse the reaction seems to be focused on the possible mis-identification of the assailant as a bike courier.

I think that most cyclists are going to be uncomfortable with the fact that one of their own is capable of something like this. Sometimes, I get the feeling that cyclists feel that they’re superior to most users on the street for a variety of reasons such as the fact that they’re non-polluting, they’re quiet, they can move faster, they don’t contribute to deadlock, etc. Yet, they seem impervious to the fact that many cyclists openly flout the Highway Traffic Act with illegal lane changes and my favourite, running through red lights.

A lot of cyclists complain that they don’t get enough respect on the street but I think that they should give respect before they ask for it.

I wonder what will happen if and when they catch this cyclist? Will cyclists disavow him by saying that he’s just a homeless person from the local shelter as one article points out? Or will they finally recognize that everyone is human and that includes themselves?

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