I began the day briefly watching CNN and listening to Paula Zahn as she reminded Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to hurry up with his responses to the crisis in the Middle East as a commercial would soon come up. I shook my head as I couldn't reconcile how a commercial would have a scheduled priority over Shimon Peres. Anyhow, it is a crazy world where all our priorities have been shaken up.

As a consolation, I had the pleasure later to visit the site Justice not War published by the Foreign Policy In Focus; finally, I could take off into a virtual trip where the language of war and death was being replaced by the language of peace and life. This trip was a great experience which left me feel humble and with few words. Please take this trip as it is a rewarding experience to learn a new vocabulary and a new language such as the ones expressed by the Nobel Peace Prize winners over the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Our language is shaped by ourselves as we live our lives, and it is disappointing to realize that our language is sometime not the most intelligent. So as I read the Bank of Canada's news release announcing the cut of the interest rate by 3/4 percentage point I recognize how this bank reflects the status quo mind set of our leadership.

The monetary policies to keep high interest rates to steer the Canadian economy have been the driving force to aground our social growth for the last many years, and especially so for the last ten years. And now, at a time of impending recession and gloom the Bank of Canada takes the bolding lead to cut its rate by 3/4 percentage point. First, the changes of interest rates are not synchronized with the current reality of the economy as they have an effect usually many months after their changes. Secondly, at the time of low confidence and fear a lower interest rate per se is not the answer for stimulating the economy. But what bothers me is the language of the news release stating that lower interest rates will keep inflation near the Bank's target of 2 percent over the medium term, while there is no target referring to our employed work force, as to say that a check on inflation at a time of recession is more important than employment. And to reinforce its status quo mentality the Bank refers to the uncertainties due to the 'geopolitical' developments, again a reflection of the Bank's hegemonic mentality of putting the geographical political stability of poor countries above their social development.

We need a new way of languaging where peace replaces war and democracy replaces hegemony.

References

A widow's plea for restraint, by Amber Amundson, S O J O M A I L, October 17, 2001 http://www.Sojo.net

Justice not War, Foreign Policy In Focus http://www.fpif.org/justice/index.html

The Peacemakers speak, TheCommunity.com http://www.thecommunity.com/crisis/

Bank of Canada lowers key policy interest rate by 3/4 percentage point to 2 3/4 per cent, Bank of Canada, News Release, October 23, 2001 http://www.newswire.ca/releases/October2001/23/c9313.html