Sunday 30 December 2018

Kids, Love And FUTURE.


 

 Kids, Love And FUTURE.

 

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When life is threatened, we pull all stops and try to keep breathing. All living and growing things are born with the same instinct, to stay alive. If a human is not threatened, he or she becomes concerned with the quality of life and competition for a better life.

Humans until recent history were threatened simply because often more were dying than being born. We were animals fighting not to be extinct, and it took all of our energy and ingenuity simply to go on. Some thousands of years ago the first laws were written and in some areas of the world agricultural civilization began to change the odds in favor of human survival. The Ten Commandments became the ideal, and people even started to realize that when co-operation happens the whole species benefits as long as competition is present but restricted by regulations. Most people believed that both co-operation and restrictive laws were Gods creation.

It is only in our present existence that the conflict between competition and co-operation became critical. Competition which motivated us to thrive and take over the planet now is capable of destroying all we have and know. The human population is divided into two camps that are equal in power and friction is sparking all over the place. It is time to open our minds and study what we are facing and how long do we have before the catastrophe.  

Sadly there are people who wish to spoil the party by exposing the fact that today’s enjoyments will have to be paid by tomorrows people, and I am not talking about national deficits.

A tiny fifteen-year-old Swedish girl named Greta Thunberg decided to take action. She began by skipping school and demonstrating alone on the Swedish parliament’s steps. The Media took notice and realized that she is able to rationalize and communicate very effectively. She was invited to make a speech at the  U.N. plenary session COP24 where she was featured on the world stage, aside from the main corporate media in North America.

GRETA THUNBERG: My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 15 years old, and I’m from Sweden. I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now!

Many people say that Sweden is just a small country, and it doesn’t matter what we do. But I’ve learned that you are never too small to make a difference. And if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to.

But to do that, we have to speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable that may be. You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.

But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.

The year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children, maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.

Until you start focusing on what needs to be done, rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground, and we need to focus on equity. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.

We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past, and you will ignore us again. We have run out of excuses, and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people. Thank you.

I copied the speech from DemocracyNow.org. It is true, and we are stealing the future from our children. They can’t understand why we value jobs in polluting the planet more than we value jobs in producing clean, renewable energy. They clearly see that our addiction to immediate economic prosperity is dooming them to the hell we are creating.

Every one of us that states “I don’t believe in Climate Change” is guilty of killing and dooming to misery untold numbers of unborn children mostly our own.

Happy 2019 everybody.

Sunday 16 December 2018

Fake News and Yellow Vests.


Fake News and Yellow Vests.A protester wearing a yellow vest holds a French flag as he walks among tear gas on the Champs-Elysees Avenue near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Perhaps There is nothing wrong with finishing off civilization. Live it up, have a great party and go away peacefully. Some people are fine with it, and who am I to say they are wrong. I chose to try and prolong life, even if it’s not as fancy as it could be. We can live it up and not worry about the future.  Why should I worry about what will happen with this world a hundred or even fifty years from now?

The Canadian News Networks showed riots in France where people wearing yellow vests were demonstrating against new Carbon Tax. The French people were leading the fight against pollution for years, and here we see them fighting against the one thing that may slow down the emissions that we produce. Either the news was fake, or the political Right won. Vive les corporations. The political right is against measures which slow down consumption especially of energy.

It was time to communicate with somebody from France, and I did. Here is the story from a person in France. Since Emanuel Macron won power promising that he is a friend of the people and will work to help the average folks, the opposite has happened. Surprise? Not really. It is the same here in North America and other places but to various degrees.

In France, the fuel taxes increased in the last year before carbon tax, by about 25% combined with other taxes which increased the cost of living for the working people. At the same time taxes on high earning corporations were cut, increasing the country’s already high deficit. Lately, a 10% Carbon Tax was added, supposedly to curb pollution. It is not like the Canadian carbon tax that is rolled back to those who need it; it is simply used to shore up the government.

At the same time, there is talk about privatizing parts of the health care, closing schools and other austerity measures which will set back the standard of living of the lowest earners. The increase in fuel prices hurts the rural folks most since they have no choice but to use their vehicles, just as we do here.

Rural populations everywhere are marginalized since they don’t have the democratic power of city people who depend on rural folks work to survive. In France, they came to a breaking point, donned their yellow vests and headed out to the streets. Folks who are normally not very involved in politics went out demanding the resignation of the president.

As in every case of peaceful demonstrations, they were joined by the more militant people of both the far left and the far right and violence ensued. The French people can’t forget the Revolution even if they try, which they are not. To them, it is clear that the people have the power. Sadly, the guillotine is the tool that brings baguettes to starving peasants.

The problem in France and other developed countries is simple to understand. When the Soviet Union was strong governments were weary about the spread of Communism which mistakenly is often confused with Social Democracy. The Communists were not very kind to their working class but portrayed themselves as such. If Communism would have been true Socialism the world would have functioned much like a Hutterite colony without the religious aspect. It was not, but they did manage to lead the world in some ways for a while. When someone says that Capitalism brought the invention of the Cell phone, you can remind them that Communists invented the satellites which make cell phones work.

In France, the working people have been losing ground for more than thirty years now. Their factories were outsourced to poorer countries, wages remained low, banks and big companies got bailouts and here is the big crunch. Under the guise of reducing taxes, the big companies gained huge tax breaks while the many millions of workers were made to foot the bills. There was no trickle down — those who got the money invested in automation reducing jobs and forever taking as much as they could.

Since the media was bought by those with money the poor and average folks were convinced that life is meant to be harsh for them since they are not smart or don’t work hard enough. A few did very well, and the rest went on trying, until a couple of months ago when the truth became obvious. The average rural family, now paying about $100 more a month for gas realized that there is no end to greed and that abuse will not stop because abusers feel sorry. Poor people will lose the earth but not have a party.

At the time of the year when people celebrate the birth of a person who said to love each other as ourselves, there are so many who are shown the opposite from love. A scant few possess most of the needed resources and the many dream of better days without much hope of seeing improvement. Their productivity and sacrifices are siphoned into accounts shielded from taxes and used by those who treat them like “human resources,” not persons with feelings, loved ones and hopes or dreams. Assailed by commercials, dazzled by artificial fakes, the working folks who sustain our human community find themselves fighting for their livelihood wearing yellow jackets.

It doesn’t have to be like that at all. We can have a world where every human being is living comfortably, without threat to their person, world or future if we just choose to share and contribute willingly for human betterment. We can have more than enough for each of us if a few will forgo corruption that sustains nothing but a useless want of power which will gain them nothing but a feeling of superiority.

Lucky for us we are seeing a new trend in the generation coming up. These young people who possibly are not acquainted with the person born in Bethlehem so long ago, are naturally following his lead. They are concerned with cleaning up our mess and are willing to give not just receive.

Sunday 9 December 2018

Magic for Christmas?








Magic for Christmas?


I don’t know how it works for most families but in mine, people make Christmas lists. It is common to hear each of us saying to others, what do you want for Christmas and surprise, on Christmas they open a gift, or gifts and say, oh wow just what I wanted, thank you. When I was a kid, there was no Christmas in the country where Christ walked and preached. Mom got us some modest gifts but didn’t say why. Kids who received Christmas gifts were considered aliens in Israel.


I remember my first Christmas in full detail, something that most of you probably don’t. It was 1967, centennial year, and I was a newcomer in Canada. A co-worker of my dad’s had two daughters about my age, and invited me to go with them to a place they called “The Mall.” It was the Chinook Mall that still exists in Calgary but now is much bigger. I have never been to a “Mall” before. I was wearing some of the clothes that came with me, in a suitcase on the plane. It was my warmest but not adequate for the cold weather that year, nor did it look Canadian. Most passers-by took a look at me, stopped and looked again. I acted tough, didn’t shiver and looked back with defiance.


A lot has changed since 1967, but a lot is still the same. The mall which used to be much smaller then compared to now was gigantic in my eyes. There were lights and music, moving stairs, Santa with Elves and a huge amount of merchandise piled or hung in very attractive ways. Blinking decorations and to my surprise, a lot of artificial greenery mimicking the outdoors rather unconvincingly. I came here from the land of the birth of “our Lord” but have never seen a decorated Christmas tree, and here were dozens of them with so many gifts, wrapped and unwrapped waiting to be sold for cash. The credit card was not yet invented, as far as I knew.


Most striking were the people who seemed to be moving fast, unimpressed with the displays or even with some live entertainment here and there, shopping. I didn’t yet know the word “shopping” and didn’t associate it with an activity that is necessary for living. What became obvious to me on that trip was that we were in the land of plenty, but most things were not for us. It was there, easy to touch but when I looked at the price tag, I realized that it was for a different class of people who for some reason had a lot more money. It took me years to understand why so few had so much while others had much less and many more had close to nothing. Most of the poor people worked very hard and very long hours.


The people I was with were working people and quickly headed to the cheaper stores like Woolworth and K Mart where decorations were not as nice, and the place looked somewhat messier, and merchandise was not of best quality. At that time the cheapest was stuff made in Japan. Mostly we were forced to use our hard earned cash on things that broke easy and fast.  People often looked at their handwritten notes since there were no cell phones to type Christmas lists in and compare prices on the internet.


This brings me back to my Christmas list this year which I don’t even have to write. I been here now over fifty years and I have all the material things that I want. I don’t know what to write on my Christmas wish list. It is a long time since the days when all of my material possessions were in one suitcase, and there was no money in my pocket. I watch people who spent the same years in the country I came from and see that they have more or less the same. Wow, I whisper to myself, I could have stayed there and theoretically lived just about the same. The main difference is, here we lived in peace.


If I must come up with a gift that I would truly enjoy, I decide, let's ask for something really magical. I will not get it, but I will have a chance to explain why I want it. I would like an “Indestructible Truth Wand” for Christmas. It could be any little stick, but when aimed at someone it will force them to tell the truth. The truth can be hurtful at times but would it ever make a difference. I could point it at some kid, and he or she would say to me, you are an ugly old fool, and I would have to smile and say, thanks, I know.


Just imagine how much you could change the world if people knew that you have a Truth Wand and people must tell the truth if it’s pointed at them. First, you would find that news reporters would set camp around you and people would offer you trips to go places and force the truth out of political leaders, industry moguls, and even little kids would request that you will make their moms and dads say what they truly think. You could take the wand to a jail and free half of the inmates and later go to the stock market exchange and get new inmates to fill up the jail to over capacity. You could go to parliaments, major churches, and some media outlets and make some good catches. The wand wouldn’t give you any solutions, only make people honest, regardless of their intentions, good or bad.


If a Truth Wand made its way into my hands, I would use it first to make life bearable for all existing people which would immediately slow down human birth rates and slow down the danger of us destroying our planet. What do you think Santa, can I have one?



A new Human.

  A new Human. Some time ago I was listening to a past American president's campaign speech. He was threatening harm to people who did...