the Concavity Cabinet: the gift that keeps receiving waste
we’re going to make an unprecedented intercontinental gift of certain newly expendable northeast American territories, in return for the faute-de-mieux continuation of U.S. waste-displacement access to those territories.
Context
The structure of the "gift" exposed as its opposite: the territory is given away "in return for the faute-de-mieux continuation of U.S. waste-displacement access" — Canada receives title but the U.S. keeps dumping. It is a gift that keeps receiving waste, ownership transferred precisely so the liability stays behind. The whole grievance the A.F.R. fights is compressed here: the Concavity is Canada's on paper and America's in fact, a present engineered to remain the giver's toilet.