Monday 26 August 2019

Alberta 2019.


Alberta 2019.

Alberta is a big place. Last week, I did the yearly trip to visit my wife’s relatives up north in a little town called Falher. It reminded me of our towns in the Crowsnest Pass but without mountains. We drove hour after hour through the richest province of Canada moving through the populated cities to the rural areas of the north. First, we saw fields with crops which would make most countries jealous. The huge fields are dotted with oil pumps. Later we entered a forested area full of standing trees and some towns where sawmills are the main feature, again seeing oil and gas activities. We began to see cleared farmland and more oil pumps About seven hours from Calgary. It is an area populated by French people who like the rest of us are proud to be Canadians. The Town of Falher just celebrated its 100 birthday.

The town looks familiar since it has a “main street” which is the business center and the streets and homes on both sides look just like ours. The same phenomenon there as here: a lot of stores for rent, a drugstore or two, a hardware store, barber, little local newspaper, town office, and a school. Of course, there is a senior’s Lodge called “Villa”, senior’s apartments and a second-hand store. Apple is a major shopping place and instead of a chain name supermarket, they have a Co-op. The nearest other towns are shutting down. There are no stores, gas stations or any of the services which used to make up a town left. Most grain elevators are gone and the train tracks are being dismantled.

As you go through the rural Alberta areas one aspect is most obvious. The little old farms which made up the communities are mostly gone. There are a few farms still existing but not many.

I sat by the fire with an old farmer who explained the situation. The rural people, farmers, and ranchers used to be the backbone of America and Canada. They could not afford to be as “efficient” as Big Ag, huge corporations who buy and operate farms. The farmers who used to feed America are no longer doing it. The land is producing commodities for export and the food is often imported.

During the last thirty or forty years, Big Ag lowered commodity prices at harvest times and forced little farmers to sell, often buying the farmers' homes and renting back to them. Later the kids left and a way of life was gone. The towns no longer had people and with the reduced tax-base services disappeared. Rural hospitals were gone, government services reduced, businesses closed, police moved away, parishes disappeared, dealerships closed and rural America went into death throes. The only towns that do well are close to cities serving as bedroom communities and look like small cities.

Now the profit from farms is going to big corporations somewhere else, no longer circulating in the communities. The old farmers are waiting to die watching their towns in which they invested their lives disappearing and not being replaced by something better. The old farmer wipes a tear, blows his nose and goes silent. He sold his land to a corporation based in the city and his farmhouse was moved off the land that his folks pioneered. His kids are in the city and his town may lose its local newspaper that existed for eighty years. He fed the nation, and the nation did not protect him as he always expected they would.

I try to console him by saying that the same process is happening in the city. Our small businesses are all but gone, and all the services we used to have are disappearing, I say. We no longer even have cashiers in some Walmarts, I tell him. So-called independent businesses are now a franchise.

I look at the ancient face scarred by wrinkles of hardship, weather, and hard work. The flickering light from the fire reflects not only in his old style glasses but in his somewhat cloudy yet sharp eyes. He is not the kind of person who would utter lies even under stress. He is all of our farmers and ranchers who used to be the backbone of the country and now are seeing the end of their era. The farmers he said, lost to the corporations. We should have never let it happen. He leans closer to me and asks, what is the world coming to?

The fire crackles and embers rise into the night sky. The old farmer keeps explaining. In nature, he says, those who are weaker combine forces and defend themselves in groups. Our quest for being the rugged individual that wins all changed it. Competition was good for us but we let it go overboard. We took away people’s abilities to combat takeovers by a few and used laws to break natural group resistance. We had laws protecting little guys from monopolies but they are mostly gone. Few are doing well, some are working for them and are all right, but many are being set back. We live longer more comfortable lives he said, but it’s a lonely life devoid of emotions. Families are broken and communities are gone.

He points a finger at me and continues: we should also think about the future. When they no longer need workers, soldiers, and farmers, what will they do with us? Will they allow us to have medicine, social programs, and care as we age?

I drive back from the north to the south noticing the deteriorating farms and shrinking towns. It is a rich province but who does it serve? What will happen when it will be empty of people? I realize that success is based on balance and balance is achieved by matching the people’s power with market forces. We need both. It's no longer capitalism versus labor, it’s a choice of how humanity will be shaped in the future.

 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

News from heaven.


News from heaven.

Sitting by my window in a remote little mountain town in Alberta I see peace and tranquility. Often, I used to picture what Heaven could be like and it was not better than what is in front of me. I could describe it for my readers but what’s the point. All the nice people that I meet here every day can look for themselves. People living in a mountain town with all the benefits of modern technology have a heavenly existence unless they refuse to see. Yes, there are pains, poverty, and heartbreaks, but there are reasons for it all. We do not see good if there is no evil to counter it. A little community in a forested valley crowned by mountains. Kind people smiling whenever they meet and helping each other. Wild animals grazing in town. Crows in the Crow’s Nest acting as if they own the place. It’s heaven.

 Some of my friends are talking about trips and cruises but I only feel regret for having to go away from here even for short durations. Anywhere which I can’t drive in a day and come back for the night is too far. I could be in another beautiful place but it wouldn’t be home. In the little-known gospel of Thomas, it states. “Jesus said, The kingdom is here but they do not see it.” I do.

I have another window I use regularly to view the world at large; it is called a computer. This most wonderful human invention allows me to see the whole world without going anywhere and it answers all my questions. I can ask how to make zucchini loaf or which country has most billionaires in the world, (India) and the answer is there. With very little effort, information pro and against any subject becomes available and I must make a choice who to believe.

When I open the window to the world, (The computer,) heaven disappears fast to be replaced by a hostile and aggressive world-threatening my perfect heaven story. Some of us are fortunate but most are not. I see a world on fire and fear enters my heart. This perfect existence that I and those around me enjoy, is very fragile and threats are looming from every direction.

I remember my mother telling me at a very young age how her peaceful world crumbled and became hell on Earth when the war began. One day she was a young girl living at home with a loving well-to-do family, and the next she was running away from bombs and hiding fugitives at risk of death. She spent her fourteenth birthday as a slave in a work camp.

I sympathize with the people who don’t watch the news because it’s too depressing. I did the same for a while. However, when I opened my eyes, I saw a much worst world and a dangerous world-threatening my little paradise. The people in pre-war Europe should have stayed more vigilant also and could have avoided the hell that became their reality. There were more than enough warning signs which they ignored.

Our so-called “news” is available from many sources. We used to have “real news” until some point around the eighties, but the rules were changed and they sold the news media to big news organizations. These often reflect the political and economic views of the owners becoming propaganda tools. Lucky for us there are still some outlets who refuse to be bought and exist upon true marketing not influenced by politics or often solely upon donations from large numbers of viewers who are willing to invest in an attempt to have real unbiased views.

I follow some independent news organizations who enable me to be aware of facts that remain unpublished by the mainstream media. It is all available. If one could follow all the news from near and far instead of the sports, entertainment, weather and other items which take the time of our favorite stations reports. There are brave news reporters who venture into dangerous places and risk their lives to get the news, but often the reports are not published. There are many who speak the inconvenient truth but we the people are denied access to them.

I live in paradise but easily can see that the world in which the Kingdom exists is in danger. Millions of people are moving around trying to find a place to live. Other groups are demonstrating in an attempt to gain real democracy and have human rights. Millions of youths are out demanding that governments will take steps to curtail activities that may destroy the earth. We can see heaven but so many others are in hell and we care.

I think that if we want to keep our heavenly existence, we must see our heaven with one eye while keeping the other on the rest of the world. Our first task is to ensure that our community remains an example of how wonderful it is when people make the best with what they have and care about each other. Next, we should care about those less fortunate than ourselves. The world, country, and our province are on fire. We should all think hard not only about immediate rewards but about all humankind now and in the future. We are a small group of people yet we have a voice not less than any other people. Let ours be the voice of justice, reason, and love for all.

I close my “eye to the world,” the computer, and look at the moon above the pine forests covering the mountains. Thank you, Lord I whisper with heartfelt gratitude. Another day is done and in the morning I should see the mist on the mountains and a fresh new sun. Perhaps the first person I will see on the street will smile and say “good morning.” Probably.

 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

Sunday 11 August 2019

Life is Change.


Life is Change.

The only constant in our universe is change. There is nothing that we can point at that doesn’t change, either fast or slow. There is no way to prevent change. We wish for peace and security and the tranquility of staying one way, but it doesn’t exist. There is never even one instance in a life in which change stops. If the change is satisfactory we thank God, universe or the stars, or the other way around; “God, why me?” However, we do not truly want to exist without change. We spend this whole life on making efforts to grow, expand, and change what we can change. I was dirt at one time, became a human that grew eating what comes from the dirt, and I will be dirt again. I say “I” referring to my body. In Hebrew, we are called sons of dirt which later was translated into the sons of man which is the same thing.

Watch children or young adults. If they have straight hair, they curl it or curly hair they straighten it. If they are short, they try to look taller, and you get the picture. In America, they try to be rugged individuals and in Orient; they try to conform and not stand out. You may have a hard time finding a human who is just happy with the way he or she is and is not putting all of their efforts to effect change. The most coveted thing in life is the ability to make our own choices and we are willing to fight for the freedom to choose.

Progress to humans means changing the world to give humans more pleasure and less work. We do that with disregard for the natural systems which nourished us. Even within our own society we constantly try to climb upon each other and reach the top first. People of one race try to subjugate the other races and those possessing some technical or economic advantage use it to take away what others have and need. The easiest thing to convince people is the notion that they are somehow superior. Yet, if we kill all the insects on Earth it will not survive for five years, but if we remove humans, the earth will flourish. I look and I don’t know if to have compassion or pity.

In the beginning, humans had to be very smart to survive. No natural weapons like teeth or claws, no speed, wings or other natural protections aside from intellect and imagination. From the beginning to recent history humans honed intellect until learning to harness Earth’s resources to do their work. The promise has been fulfilled, and we filled the Earth. Now arrives another chapter unexpectedly. Two promises that collide with each other. A divided road with an obscured ending.

There is a promise for eternal life which humanity is not yet ready for. It is based on our ability to ignore the material and convert to the spiritual. The other long-awaited promise is for a Judgment Day. This one is in progress already and the tools are in place. Men in response to greed and hunger for power set in motion the course to self-destruction and termination of human life and culture. All the necessary tools are in our hands and we can choose. Relatively quick extermination by super-efficient killing weapons or slow destruction by altering God's plan without having an alternative plan. The process is unfolding as we speak, and greed prevents us from stopping it.

What fascinates us is how much power do we have over directing change. It is obvious that we human beings can take action and bring about changes that will make a difference. We can grow food instead of looking for what may be available as other primates do. We also believe that we can invoke higher powers to act on our behalf. For thousands of years, people have been praying and making sacrifices in an attempt to convince God or Gods to intervene in their lives. It is easy to find people who witnessed evidence that it works. I believe that prayers work. Others dismiss the notion citing evidence to the contrary.

To me, the only important aspect of this life is the survival of my species. Against all odds, we survived and developed a wonderful culture that can flourish on earth and even spread into the rest of the universe. I see beauty and wisdom in humans, a real kinship with that which we call God. Possibly we are here for a purpose beyond just surviving as other creatures do.

This generation believes in science, but only when it is convenient. We have used science to develop wonderful technologies and we have the means to make life heavenly or destroy it. The level of success depends on the stories which we believe, which seem to create our reality.

After a lengthy investigation, after examining the religions that I could, including science, I drew a conclusion for myself. If people are willing to follow the instructions of what we know as Christianity, excluding the history, dogmas and other attachments, it can produce a nearly perfect human world. Other religions can also work but I will concentrate on this one.

If we use our stories and focus on two main items, our descendants will gain the promised future that we all strive for. The two most important items on this menu for life are, take care of creation and love each other as yourself. To do that, we first have to overcome the temptation to use all which the earth can provide for selfish gain. It is not a question of politics or even economics; it is morality leading to survival.

That’s all.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

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...