Hope

While the Earth Burns has an excellent article up on grassroots revolutionary democracy in South America.
I heartily recommend it.
If you depend heavily on North American news - the car crashes, the house fires, big weather, celeb gossip, the egregious behavior of some government official, the best places to holiday, the latest food that can kill you, tons of US news, the newest seven wonders of ...oh look, another white girl has fallen down a well - then you could be forgiven for thinking we're choking on our entitlements while acting out some sort of secular end times.

Meanwhile, down south in the two-thirds world...Grassroots Movements Changing the Face of Power

The Harper Latin American World Tour News Template.

On Monday in Columbia, Harper pronounced as a "ridiculous position" the idea that Canada should tie human rights guarantees to corporate profits. President Uribe's cousin, the former state security chief, and many of Uribe's political backers are accused of providing a death list of union leaders to paramilitary hitmen.
"When we see a country like Colombia ... that wants to embrace democracy and human rights, then we say, 'We're in," [Harper] said."

On Wednesday in Chile, Harper pronounced as "utter nonsense" the idea that Latin America is caught between the extremes of Bush and Venezuela's Chavez.
"Canada's very existence demonstrates that the choice is a false one. Canada's political structures differ substantially from those in the United States," he said, shortly before ducking into the back door of Canadian mining company Barrick Gold to avoid facing protesters out front accusing the Canadian company of environmental and human rights violations and crimes against indigenous peoples.

On Friday, Harper will be in Haiti.
Hell, we don't have to wait till Friday - we can do that one right now. Fill it in yourself :

On Friday in Haiti, Harper pronounced as "____" the idea that Canada, along with ____, was responsible for the ____ of the democratically elected government of _____, or the mass _____ and the two year period of _____ that followed. In response to the ____ in the shanty town of ____ in Dec 2006, Peter MacKay applauded the massacre of innocent ____ and ____ as "_____".

“From hockey championships to humanitarian and military leadership roles in Afghanistan and Haiti, we can say again this year that Canada is a citizen of the world and we make our contribution in a positive way.”
- Stephen Harper, Canada Day Greeting, July 1, 2007

UPDATE : From the real G&M story, Jul. 20 :
“We are there to help the people of Haiti break the cycle of poverty and violence,” Mr. Harper said.
“It faces a long road of institution-building, police and judicial reform and social recovery,” Mr. Harper continued. “But together, we will stay the course.”

UPDATE 2 : Fixed link to Steve's "We will stay the course."