Nobel – mackaycartoons

Tuesday May 1, 2018

April 30, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 1, 2018

A Trump Nobel Peace Prize? South Korea’s Leader Likes the Idea

Several months ago, South Koreans considered President Trump as dangerous as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, as the two traded threats of nuclear annihilation.

January 16, 2018

Now, commentators and others in Seoul think Mr. Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for helping start the unexpected peace process unfolding on the divided Korean Peninsula. On Monday, South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, said he felt the same.

Mr. Moon’s endorsement of a Nobel for Mr. Trump, who has faced one ethical scandal after another at home, came as the South Korean leader presided over a meeting of his senior presidential staff on Monday. During the meeting, Mr. Moon received a telegram from Lee Hee-ho, a former first lady of South Korea, congratulating him for a successful summit meeting with Mr. Kim on Friday and wishing him a Nobel Peace Prize.

“It’s really President Trump who should receive it; we can just take peace,” Mr. Moon was quoted by his office as saying.

April 15, 2013

In recent months, Mr. Moon and his senior aides have repeatedly thanked Mr. Trump for making a rapprochement between the Koreas possible. Mr. Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach of tightening the noose around the North with economic sanctions and military threats was largely responsible for forcing Mr. Kim to the negotiating table, they said.

If they were genuinely grateful to Mr. Trump, they were also seen as stoking the ego of the impulsive American leader so that he would continue to support South Korea’s efforts to resolve the North Korean crisis through dialogue. (Source: NYT)

Saturday, October 11, 2014

October 10, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, October 11, 2014

Kids these days, and a contrast in world views

Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work for children’s rights.

Not so Nobel prize 2006

The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the two “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”

Malala, 17, is the youngest ever winner of a Nobel Prize. A schoolgirl and education campaigner in Pakistan, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl has been ticketed for interfering with a police animal after allegedly blowing an air horn at a Hamilton police Mounted Patrol Unit horse, causing the animal to enter a live lane of traffic.

This is the first time police have used the new bylaw since it came into effect Aug. 20, said mounted unit Sergeant Brad Adams.

The bylaw, which comes with a $250 fine, was approved by city council amid complaints from police about people, often patrons in Hess Village, harassing the horses. These incidents, including beer bottles and cigarettes being thrown at the horses, were happening on a weekly basis, he said.

The mounted unit was in the area of James Street and King Street East around 4:40 p.m. Thursday when they noticed a girl with a can of “wacky streamers” spraying the stairway leading up to the rooftop of Jackson Square, Adams said.

When the officer approached, the girl began blowing an air horn. Initially police horse RHLI was initially not bothered, but when the girl went behind the

horse and again blew the horn, the horse was startled and stepped into a live lane of traffic. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday October 13, 2012

October 13, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday October 13, 2012

EU Nobel peace prize: No minor achievement

Europe’s officials could scarcely believe their good fortune today. Unexpectedly, the EU was given the Nobel Peace Prize. The citation praised the EU for “over six decades” contributing to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

Europe’s leaders fell upon this rare piece of good news with an almost desperate embrace. If there is a core justification for the European project, it is to make war impossible again on the continent. That has been the EU’s outstanding achievement. When under attack, Europe’s leaders fall back upon 60 years of peace in Europe. It is no minor achievement.

Secondly, after and just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU acted as a beacon for democracy, for human rights and a civil society. Many Eastern European countries rejected communism because they had before them a clear example of an alternative. Young people wanted to be part of a normal European society. Eastern Europe today is testimony to the spread of democracy.

It is also true that the existence of the EU enabled countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Even today, in the midst of hardship and austerity, there is a deep attachment to belonging to Europe. That is the legacy of history.

But the Nobel committee’s decision will puzzle many. Despite the EU’s successes, it failed in the Balkans. It lacked the will and determination to intervene and save lives. The massacre at Srebrenica happened in Europe’s backyard.

And the prize comes at a moment of violence and tension on the streets of many European capitals as a young generation endures years of hardship and high unemployment. For them the European dream has not delivered. (Source: BBC News)

Wednesday October 18, 2006

October 18, 2006 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Recognizing two solitudes of Lending Agencies

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank – the innovative micro-credit program he founded thirty years ago to help some of the world’s poorest people climb out of chronic poverty. The Nobel Peace Prize is the latest of many awards Yunus has won for bringing this powerful idea to fruition. (More: Christian Science Monitor)

Meanwhile, Stan Keyes has landed a new job, three months after the former federal cabinet minister and longtime Liberal MP was ousted as Boston Consul General by the Conservative government.

The 53-year-old will head up the Canadian Payday Loan Association, the lobby group for 22 firms that run more than 850 payday lending outlets across Canada.

The industry has had its share of controversy, with some critics saying payday lending victimizes the poor and plays an increasing part in bankruptcy cases. The federal Conservatives just introduced legislation to allow provinces to regulate the industry. Payday lending is worth about $1.7 billion each year, with more than 1,300 independent and chain stores.

Keyes, whose new job will see him lobby governments on regulations they create for the payday lending industry, said he accepted becoming CPLA president because he believes it will allow him to use all the skills he’s developed over the last 30 years in politics and the media. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

COMMENTARY

Why can’t defeated politicians simply accept the fact that once they get turfed out of office then maybe it’s time to learn from the voter thrashing and go away into private life for good? Stan Keyes served an honorable and distinguished career by representing Hamilton West as MP from 1988-2004. More than enough time to make his mark on Ottawa. He climbed up the political ladder and for his loyalty to Paul Martin, was rewarded with a cabinet position for a short period of time before being swept out of office by David Christopherson.

Out of office, I chose to kick the poor guy when he was at his lowest, by reminding readers around the time of the Athens Olympics that, were it not for the federal election called a few months earlier, our man Stan would’ve been there in his capacity as Minister of Amateur Sport.

That should’ve been the last cartoon I ever drew of him, thinking he’d soon pick himself up and go into private life eventually finding a good paying job in the private sector and never be seen again.

But no, Paul Martin had to follow in the footsteps of all past Prime Ministers and throw something to Stan in the form of a Patronage Appointment. It was off to Boston for the Loyal Martinite as the new cocktail party hosting Canadian consul-general. It made for a nice combo cartoon with the Maple Leaf Processing Plant whose fate at the time of Keyes appointment was still up in the air.

A highpoint for him may have been observing the defeat of the Liberal government from his diplomatic perch in Massachusetts, but that wouldn’t last long. Stephen Harper would replace him within a few months giving Stan the chance to leave public life for good.

But then the latest job offer came and he took the hook and bait. While it is a private sector job his post as head of the Canadian Payday Loan Association will have consequences to those poor souls who’ve come to rely on loans with ridiculous interest rates. While he says he looks forward to assisting in the regulation of the lending agencies he’s not exactly there to look out for common folk trapped in the cycle of borrowing. He’s there to lobby the government on the lenders behalf. He not in the commoners house anymore, he’s there to defend lending agencies from gouging people with exhorbitant interest rates. Pretty shameful.