Summer is the time for international cartoons, among other subjects I've written about on this blog. Here and here and here, too. Throughout the year I tend to draw on local and national events before I'll consider drawing on other stuff going on in the world. There are regions of the world where I deliberately stay away from commenting on because the complexity of certain situations simply baffles me. The situation around Israel is a prime example. Perhaps when I was newer at cartooning I'd attempt to do something on the whatever peace process was being negotiated upon between Israel and the Palestinians. Now, however, I've joined others who may be fatigued by it all and wondering why such a tiny piece of the planet gets so much attention.

By comparison, the political situation in Zimbabwe is so uncomplex it makes it so easy to comment on. Having a despot control any country in the 21st century makes for an easy target for editorial cartoonists.  The degree by which they cling to power makes it even easier.

In Mugabe's case, it's not just how he clings to power that is so outrageous, it's the fact that he clings to the one noble ideal that energized him to rally the black majority of Rhodesia ... 40 years ago, when Zimbabwe was controlled by a white minority of British colonialists (before reforms brought in by Ian Smith).  He courageously fought against minority rule, and spent time in jail for his outspokeness, much like Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Consequently, he became a hero and rose to become leader of a new nation in the horn of Africa in 1980.

It sounds like the foundation of what could have been the rise of a great African hero, doesn't it? But from the start to the conclusion of the 2008 election of Mugabe's reign over Zimbabwe tactics of violent intimidation have been so blatantly used to keep him in power. The expropriation of white owned farms, disasterious economic policies leading to unbelieveable inflation, food shortages, oil shortages, internal displacement and starvation are all part of Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The best he can do to deal with these problems is to harken back to the one ideal he started with 40 years ago -- that it's the colonists fault and now the west is only fueling the problems.

That's Mugabe's 28 year reign in a nutshell. Pretty straightforward stuff.

But even now the blaming of Zimbabwe's problems on colonials, the west, and generally the "white man", Mugabe has gone to new lengths of legitimizing his  power as a God given right. A modern day absolute monarch - the exact same people who sent colonials around to settle far off lands and oppress the people in the name of a king ruling by divine right.  Another easy international cartoon, and yet so outrageous it's actually going on before our eyes:

We've become used to seeing long established Canadian commercial institutions pass on to the control of foreign hands as part of the realities of globalization. From donuts to beer, and from steel companies to department stores, many of the things Canadians have embraced as their own and habitually consumed for so long are suddenly coming from sources that are in the newly acquired hands of foreign corporations. To Canadian nationalists it is an outrage to know that the fate of their beloved Tim Horton's maple glazed donut is in the hands of a board of directors based in Ohio. It is an abhorrant that their mug of Molson Canadian beer is partially at the mercy of a few suited people based in Denver. In this city, will it ever become part of the local lexicon to refer to Stelco, one of two Hamilton based steel companies sold to foreign buyers in the last couple of years, as US Steel Canada?

It all sounds a bit silly, doesn't it?

Many will dismiss the sale of the Hudson's Bay Company to a U.S. investment corporation that runs the Lord & Taylor department store with a big gaping yawn. Afterall, the company already switched into the hands of an American billionaire almost 3 years ago, and they're still selling the same marked up sweatshop clothing they sold way before when the HBC was still in Canadian hands. Besides, it's not like they're still selling much sought after beaver pelts hiked in by fur trappers warding of black flies and polar bears after traversing the Canadian Shield.

I suppose what I and many others find intriguing and lamentable is how the story of the once mighty Hudson's Bay Company ends like this. A company which essentially ruled over a vast swath of undeveloped land in North America for centuries is now just another token of commerce which can be flipped from one owner to another with little regard to its historical significance. A company chartered in 1670 by King Charles II, which built relations with natives and mapped out the rivers and coastlines leading to settlement and the eventual formation of borders which make up Canada. With a history that spanned centuries it's difficult to blow this off as just another company whose name may change but whose stuff we'll still be consuming.

But happily, the original documents, photos, drawings and records, all relating to the Hudson's Bay Company will continue to remain in this country thanks to the HBC Archives permanently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

It's satire folks. Lighten up. And that goes for the the people who came up with today's editorial in my newspaper. (I had to water down my cartoon so it wouldn't contrast with the editorial.)

It's the New Yorker, America's best known liberal magazine where editors have already endorsed Barak Obama for President.

So what if a few rednecks in the heartland of America use the cartoon to confirm their unfounded suspicions that the Obama's are Islamic terrorists.

The fact is a staggering one third of Americans actually hold suspicions that Barack Obama has terrorist sympathies based on the fact that he has a name that rhymes with Osama, and because there's a photo of him wearing desert garb while on a trip to East Africa.

It's actually a good thing to get this issue out of the way, because the talk is simmering out there at the picnics and cookouts. There's no better time to air and extinguish the baseless allegations than in the middle of the summer before the real debates get into swing. The New Yorker magazine has probably done Obama a service with this cartoon just by provoking discussion and bringing forth the much needed clearing of the air once and for all.

* * * Update July 21, 2008 * * *

What's worrisome about this controversy is the opposition declared from those within the editorial cartooning profession. Opposition not in the form of dislike for the composition of the illustration but of the satire conveyed.

Fortunately, as the New Yorker controversy fades into history, some columnists have risen to write about the chill surrounding Obama's campaign and its lack of tolerance to mockery directed squarely at the Democratic candidate.

Hamiltonians are used to being Toronto's butt of all jokes. To them we're a lunchbucket town, "the mistake on a lake", "Canada's Pittsburgh"... all kinds of nicknames which refer to many decades when Hamilton was the chief supplier of Canada's steel. So when the Tiger-Cats beat the Toronto Argonauts on their own home turf last week Hamiltonians were given a much needed nudge to boost civic pride. Even the Toronto based Globe & Mail found the victory significant enough they published an editorial about it:

Upset honours tradition

Rarely in any professional sport can a game in the second week of the season be considered "must-win." But for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Thursday night's visit to Toronto came close. That they succeeded in pulling off a stunning upset, trouncing the hometown Argonauts 32-13, was good news not only for Hamiltonians but for all fans of the Canadian Football League.

The CFL is fond of boasting that the Argos and Tiger-Cats share the oldest rivalry in professional sports. It is one rich in tradition, with fans of both teams customarily making their way along the Queen Elizabeth Way to invade each other's stadiums. As with the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos, even regular-season matches between the two teams typically take on a playoff atmosphere, with regional bragging rights at stake. But a rivalry ceases to be a rivalry in the absence of competition. And in recent years, the Tiger-Cats have been incapable of competing.

Coming into the game, the Tiger-Cats had lost nine straight to the Argonauts and had not won in Toronto since 2001. They have fared little better against the rest of the league, winning just 12 of 54 games over the past three seasons - most of them late in the year when they had already effectively been eliminated from contention. It is no wonder that while Toronto had its largest crowd for a home opener in 16 years, few Hamiltonians made the trip up the Queen Elizabeth Way. Having admirably supported their team through its recent struggles, they had finally lost patience - as was evident from the sparse attendance at their own home opener the week previous.

Now, they finally have cause for optimism - not just because the Tiger-Cats won, but because of how they won. Quarterback Casey Printers appeared to have regained the form that made him the league's most valuable player for British Columbia in 2004. Running back Jesse Lumsden, a local hero, was virtually unstoppable. Hamilton's much-maligned defence appeared vastly improved. The Tiger-Cats played with pride.

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon, normally neutral, reportedly described Thursday's result as "good for our league." He was right. As the CFL attempts to fight off encroachment from the National Football League, the return of competitive football in Southern Ontario marks an encouraging start to the new season.

A not so charitable review of Hamilton was recently published in the Kingston Whig-Standard by Ben Rutledge. He was lamenting the debate Kingston was having regarding modern day commerce and transit issues in an historic downtown. Here's what he had to say about Hamilton:

Downtown Hamilton is gotham grim, to the point where one might expect to see the Bat Signal reflecting off the clouds at night. A mishmash of eras and architecture, Hamilton's core is not for the faint-hearted . Back when the dollar was lower, Hollywood would even come knocking when looking to film inexpensive ghetto scenes.

Gore Park, the heart of the city, looks like a miniature version of New York's seedy Times Square from the 1976 movie Taxi Driver. It needs to be pressure-washed for about a month.

Down the street, Copps Coliseum looks like it could do with a bit of scrubbing as well. Built a quarter of a century ago in the hope of attracting a National Hockey League team, it was used by hockey clubs across America to leverage better deals from their municipal landlords during the 1980s and '90s. I've had some great times at Copps (including at two concerts featuring The Tragically Hip), but I can't help thinking it symbolizes Hamilton's inability to play with the big boys.

Beside Copps Coliseum is Lloyd D. Jackson Square, an urban mall that has become a partial ghost town. Nonprofit organizations have filled in some of the holes, but huge swaths of it are unoccupied. Corridors that bustled with shoppers when I was a kid are now completely devoid of humanity. The last time I was there, I left wondering why I would ever bother to go back.

I don't want to diss Kingston over this although I will say I loved visiting the city -- when I was a university student -- 18 years ago. I don't know if I be so open minded today if I went back to see what "progress" had been made in that once stately Victorian neighbourhood near Queen's University which was then and I presume is still known as "the ghetto".

Whereas Kingston may be known for its historic buildings and peaceful setting along the eastern shores of Lake Ontario it should be known that here in Hamilton, we're pretty rich in our own history and architecture. Here's a wonderful photo gallery of old stone buildings which you may assume are Kingston's, but are actually Hamilton's. Here's some more nifty photos of Hamilton. This my own gallery of Hamilton photos.