Magic Statistics

This photo was taken yesterday evening from the window of our 10th-floor hotel room in downtown Edmonton.  Although it may not be clear from the photo, the moon was pink.  The StatDaughter tells me that’s because the window faces south-east toward oil refineries.

I'm now live-blogging from the departure lounge at Edmonton International Airport.  In about 45 minutes, we’re set to fly back home to Whitehorse via Air North.

Two airlines serve Whitehorse from Canadian cities.  Air Canada flies the Vancouver-Whitehorse route, and Air North flies Vancouver-Whitehorse and also Calgary-Edmonton-Whitehorse.  If you’re ever considering flying to Whitehorse, take Air North if at all possible.

Air North flies Boeing 737s, while Air Canada flies dinky Air Canada Jazz aircraft made by Canadair.  Also, Air North’s in-flight service is friendlier and more generous.

Like many other Western countries, Germany is seeing increasing obesity rates.  Public health nannies experts want the government to run expensive television ad campaigns hectoring advising Germans to lay off the beer and bratwurst.  No can do: That sort of agitprop is illegal.

The German government says that 37 million citizens, almost half the population, are overweight, with two million of them being children.

But the legacy of Germany's Nazi past is forcing the Bundesregierung, or federal government, to forget TV adverts giving millions advice on avoiding fatty foods and taking exercise.

The government is banned from buying advertising space on TV by the country's own constitution, which was framed in the wake of the Second World War. Those who drew up the laws remembered how the Nazis were masters of using the cinema for propaganda and feared giving any government the same kind of power. They were also nervous that governments might use advertising leverage to put pressure on broadcasters.

One insider quipped: "The last time we had a non-smoking vegetarian who wanted to tell us what to do, it wasn't a happy experience."

Clearly, Germany was prescient to outlaw televised government propaganda.  Canadian television would be immeasurably improved if our constitution contained such a provision.

h/t: Overlawyered

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Belarusian state security raided the Pentecost Sunday service at John the Baptist Pentecostal Church in Minsk, despite the fact that the church is registered with the government.  The church was repeatedly denied permission to rent a facility, so the congregation meets at the home of Pastor Antoni Bokun.  The pastor was arrested and held overnight, and church member Jaroslaw Lukasik taken into custody for several hours.

On 28 May, the day following the arrests, Pastor Bokun was fined the equivalent of C$313, about twenty times the minimum monthly wage, for holding an "unsanctioned mass meeting".

Under the 2003 Demonstrations Law, all public events require the advance permission of the local state authorities. Under the restrictive 2002 Religion Law, religious events outside designated places of worship – even in the home - may take place only after a corresponding decision by the local authorities.

Authorities registered the church but, by refusing it permission to rent premises, forced it to meet illegally in someone’s home.  The congregation was legally registered but cannot meet legally.  Catch-22!

On 30 May, Mr Lukasik, a Polish citizen married to a Belarusian, was fined about C$15 for engaging in “illegal religious activity” and handed a second deportation order.  He was given eight days to leave the country and barred from re-entering for at least five years.

Lukasik believes the purpose of the raid was to prosecute him further after his public refutation of a 8 May order under which he must return to his native Poland by 8 June.

He and his wife have three children, all of whom are Belarusian citizens.

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Robert Mugabe’s threat to treat Zimbabwe’s Catholic bishops as political enemies is being put into effect by pro-government militias.  Armed groups made up of youth and independence war veterans are targeting Catholics in rural areas where support for the ruling ZANU-PF party tends to be strongest.

Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, a long time critic of Mugabe's government, told IRIN the attacks by the militias were part of a strategy of intimidation ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

"The Green Bombers [militias from youth training centres] are being used to go around to strike fear in voters so that, come next year, they will be forced to vote ZANU-PF," Ncube said.

Many Catholics have decided to stay home from church rather than risk intimidation and assault.  Militias tried to burn down the home of Father Tirivafi Haka (not his real name) after he publicised the bishops’ pastoral letter, "God Hears the Cry of the Oppressed", censuring Mugabe’s oppressive regime.

After a recent church service, the youths, led by a well-known war veteran, raided his home, Haka said, and attempted to set it on fire because he had distributed letters among his congregation. Haka fled and after two days in hiding sought medical treatment for a badly sprained ankle incurred during his escape at the nearby Murewa hospital. Militias descended on the clinic and threatened medical staff with violence if they provided Haka with treatment.

"As if that was not enough, they forced me to address my congregation denouncing the pastoral letter and the MDC while chanting ZANU-PF slogans; it is unbelievable and painful," he said.

Fr Haka was ordered to send a letter of apology to ZANU-PF and purchase a membership card with a week, or his butchery business would be closed down.

In response to the campaign of threats and violence, the bishops have issued this statement:

"We encourage every Zimbabwean to read the pastoral letter as a guide to understanding the source of our suffering and let it inspire our prayers and actions. We call upon every Christian individual and organisation to commit themselves to the truth of God's word about the situation and it is only the truth that will set us free."

In related news, the regime appears to have initiated a parallel intimidation offensive against human-rights lawyers who defend opposition activists.

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