Monday 27 April 2020

A letter to the Editor. Canadians in Trouble.


A letter to the Editor.
Canadians in Trouble.
Just when I thought that things couldn’t be much worst, here it is. A sickness hit the world and now is killing a large number of our vulnerable citizens, the oldest in care homes, plus others. We are locked down and people are losing their ability to make a living. Oil which made Alberta rich hit bottom and our medical people, we trust and love, are being forced to quit. (This may be changing.)
A crazed individual killed 22 people in the province of Nova Scotia. I don’t care what his motive may have been, there is no justification for what he did. Our Nova Scotia brothers and sisters have not done anything that could deserve what they are suffering. It is so obvious that the victims were innocent people. A pregnant mother, a teenage girl, a nurse, a policewoman, and so many others. I can’t look at the news without wiping tears from my eyes.
Canada is a peaceful nation and most of us love the country and its people and they feel the same about us. We are polite, welcoming people who help each other in times of need.
Now it is too late to help those who lost their lives. Perhaps I can ask our mayor to send a letter on behalf of all of us to the mayor of Portaqiue offering condolences from an Alberta town. We could publish it in our newspaper and send them a copy. Many Nova Scotians are ex-coal miners like many people here.
The incident sparks renewed calls for gun controls as if we could get rid of all guns. If I had my wish I would have liked to face the murderer with a gun in my hand. A gun in trained hands of a good person can be a blessing sometimes. We could have had fewer deaths if people could defend themselves when he came to their homes. However, that is up to the lawmakers.
We can’t let all Nova Scotians know how we feel but we can show appreciation for another group that was hurt. The RCMP lost a sister in arms, who went out to fight against a threat to the citizens she is sworn to protect. (She left behind a loving husband and two young children.) The police are all ready at a moment's notice to do the same and they are here living amongst us.
I don’t know how the people of the Crowsnest pass can show appreciation to those brave police persons in their hour of mourning but I am sure that we can find a way. Possibly through social media or perhaps in some other way.
Brothers and sisters from Nova Scotia, beloved police our defenders, and all the grieving families, we are with you. We cry and pray with you.
Avner

What kind of world is it, anyway?


What kind of world is it, anyway?
Poverty marked my earliest days. My parents survived the war, but that was all. There were no good jobs, they had only basic education and no one to provide any help. All our friends were about the same. We saw some people who had much more, even talked with them, but the only hope we had was to  move to America where “the streets are paved with gold.” 
My earliest memories include stories about aliens coming to destroy us. Some were fierce creatures from another world while others were uniformed people under a red flag, depending on the comic book. At the age of six, I was sure that the dreaded atomic bomb would destroy us. To us, humans were destined to live in poverty and watch those who had it all. It was “Romantic.” Stories about princes and heroes were popular.
When I was a teenager, my parents stumbled upon the opportunity to emigrate to Canada. My dreams were to make my riches very quick and join the upper class.  Like most of the people reading this, we know that coming to America or Canada was just the beginning. Thankfully, there was an opportunity to work hard, study, and have the most basic needs met. Very few made it higher, mostly the second or third generation.
To my mind, the world could be heaven if people use what is provided by nature and our work, equally. It seems to make sense.  We are born with nothing, buried with nothing, and should be able to live life. After all, we use the earth and its bounty by working. People always did. However,  we work extra hard to make life easier. Funny isn’t it. Work harder to make it easier? YES.
In my lifetime, the amount of labor required to obtain what we need shrank significantly. We no longer have to cut strips of newspaper and crumple them to make toilet paper, for example.
It would be nice if all people could share things equally, but it’s not in our nature. Some people make greater efforts and should reap better rewards, while others should enjoy mediocre lives and be happy. The problem starts when we introduce inheritance. That is when people who don’t make extra efforts or take higher risks get ahead of those who do. We all try to help our children without considering those who don’t have help from parents. They may work harder yet stay down.
This injustice is evident with families or even nations. A German person, for example, naturally will have better prospects in life that a Nigerian child. A white child in the US will do better than an aboriginal or African American child. Ability or determination will not make much difference. If we continue that way perhaps we should consider punishing kids for the sins of their parents, but we don’t, so let’s not reward them for the parent’s success. 
I think that the rules of the free market, based on effort and fair competition, should apply. What we should aim towards is building a social structure that will offer humankind the best chance of surviving into the future.
Now we are facing a new situation and we don’t have lessons from our past to teach us what to do. A few people own mostly everything and a large portion of humans are living hand to mouth. Some can still borrow, but it’s coming to an end. It is true for individuals as well as countries. It took a virus to expose the situation.
While we were waiting for “someone” to do something, we failed to notice the sad reality. Out of seven and a half billion people, about six billion lack much hope. They don’t even have an escape route. The streets anywhere are not paved with gold and the world reached its credit limits. Now with mass fear of death people quit working and the importance of the little workers became self-evident. The next step is scary.
The whole economic system currently in place is centered around oil, which lost its dominance. Docile large countries became a threat both economically and militarily. People are waking up and realizing that everyone need not work most of their waking hours just to fulfill the basic needs while also understanding that life is possible without consuming and throwing away so much. Life can be a blessing just by spending it with your family and neighbors, hardly wasting anything.
If the people who are not inheriting or otherwise hoarding all available wealth magically disappeared, society could function. If the workers/consumers would be gone, there wouldn’t be the “world as we know it.” If the poor people who don’t possess most of the world’s wealth march against those who do, they will not even notice when they trample them under. The brainless killer virus is a better teacher than the most sophisticated computer.
I fantasize about a world where all human beings are valued but we reward those who make an extra effort, up to a point. Humanity is not better off if Jeff Bezos owns 140 billion dollars. He would live the same and work the same if he had one billion-plus some after heavy tax. We can use the other 139 billion for everyone’s benefits. I would make it illegal to have any money or other wealth dormant. Money must work for people and be taxed for society.
If we restricted the high limits of personal wealth the richest people wouldn’t clamor to get tax cuts and sway politicians towards doing things that will destroy the world in the long run. The Earth which is God’s gift to all its creatures will continue its natural function until we are ready for the next step in our evolution. The transition to spiritual existence.  Some believe it and others don’t.
Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Monday 20 April 2020

Caged humans and ravens.



Caged humans and ravens.
The little willows outside my window are beginning to sprout tiny buds and the dry grasses are allowing patches of green to show through. A doe with a fawn is busy clipping and sampling the delicious new growth hungrily. Spring in the mountains is a little late but much appreciated. I am sitting isolated at my window thinking that it has been about a month now since I have been with people. I am a hermit by nature yet I miss seeing faces that are real, not just on a flat-screen. I am spoiled you know. In my childhood, I was on a farm and often lived without seeing any new people for months at a time. It was a good time I say, and I am an old man now.   
Isolation and social distancing may go on for a long time yet, especially for me. The Coronavirus is punishing me not knowing that we are on the same side. Both of us are working towards a major social change. COVID is doing it indiscriminately like a parent who punishes all the kids for one who is being rowdy.
Is the virus a gift or a punishment? The big problem today is inequality in human society. It comes from selfishness which is at war with oneness. Humankind has achieved the capacity to overcome death but not the maturity to understand it. To survive we must stop economic growth. (Grow sideways not upwards.) Progress must be redefined. Under normal conditions, it would cause a political suicide but COVID may change it.
As I am writing these words in India millions of poor Muslim citizens are pushed to walk to their deaths. The picture repeats in some form or another in many parts of the world. Canadian food prices are rising since we restricted foreign workers from working on growing our food. Canadians are not willing to do the work for what it pays.
In a short time Pressure to “let us go back to work” will grow and a second more deadly wave of COVID will hit the western nations. The governments will try to shrug responsibility by blaming China and other countries forgetting that we are dealing with humans who have the capacity to hurt us back if they are cornered. We couldn’t defeat even poor Afghanistan and now we may be picking a war with three-quarters of the world.
The brainless COVID is doing that. If you go back three and a half thousand years you will find artifacts, including the pyramids, indicating that there was a human civilization as developed as ours on Earth. Egypt was the main empire and Moses defeated it. It was as highly unequal as our society, led by 1% elites and fuelled by slaves. War, famines, and plagues demolished it bringing a long dark age.
Humans have a hard time understanding that we are all one in a major way. Mankind is similar to a body of one man, or woman. Our body is made out of trillions of cells, each alive on its own, serving a purpose, namely being one organism. The cells are born, live their time and pass on to be replaced by newer cells. In two years all the cells that make my body and brain, are replaced. As long as they all work together we have a healthy body. When something gets out of line some cells attack each other as we see in cancer patients.
At this point, some countries including Canada are doing the right thing. People are isolating and the government is providing the necessities of life. When the danger has passed our people will be alive and have enough money to purchase needs. That money will restart the economy. We old mountain people know that you need tinder and kindling to start a fire.
Some other countries, who are led by far-right ideologies are not as cautious. Since they don’t care about the lives of the poor and are overly worried over lost revenues, they are restarting their economies too soon and they will pay a dear price.
The best salesperson in the world will fail when people’s loved ones are carried away in body bags. The same goes for people who become homeless or, God forbid, starve.
The 99% allowed the 1% to bring them into a state close to slavery over close to forty years. The abuse of producing without sharing in the bounty was inflicted over groups of people and nations at different times and places. Each time the majority allowed a few to suffer hoping that they will be spared.
COVID is leveling the suffering inflicting it on all at the same time. A few runaway slaves can’t change much. This time all those who are not privileged are threatened at the same time.  A major civil war to free slaves can change a nation. Brainless killer COVID may just cause that. I am more afraid of the reaction to the disease than the virus itself.
Some countries who are blessed to have leadership open to change will do well. Nations who understand that humanity no longer can provide jobs for all their people and yet must keep the people fed, housed, educated and in good health, will prosper. Others who still believe that they must force everyone to work and enrich their most affluent 1% may face deadly rebellions after they surface from the killer pandemic.
The Earth is guaranteed to survive and resurrect after the dominant species undergo a major change or two. The human species may perish or be set back to its prehistoric form in order to try again.
The deer outside are munching the spring growth uncaring. They adopted the main message of all human religions. Just take what you need and leave the rest knowing that there is always enough. The One who created you does not abandon you.
The humans warry that if they don’t hoard enough riches they may all kill each other. I am worried about the opposite. The cities and huge buildings will disintegrate in time and grow new delicious greens once again.
 Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Sunday 12 April 2020

A COVID Easter.


A COVID Easter.
It is rare to have all three major religions celebrate the main holiday which defines them at approximately the same time, and this year it happened. Judaism is the smallest group, but from it sprang the other two. It is the faith in one invisible God who created the world and remains in the lives of the believers. He has abilities or powers superior to earthly humans and can order nature to obey. Take it or leave it, it is your choice.
The Jewish people celebrate a historical event called the Passover. A long time ago the Hebrews were endangered and sought refuge in Egypt only to find themselves enslaved, working for sustenance with no way out. A prophet named Moses reconnected with God and used God’s power to inflict ten plagues upon the Egyptian Empire and free his people.
The Hebrews lived for generations in their promised land, suffering colonization by empires, until the Romans were in charge. At that time, according to prophesy a son is borne to the one God, and he becomes the Messiah. Unlike other saviours, the young man advocates peace, tolerance, love, and equality as the way to salvation. The established church in the Jewish temple of worship is threatened by him and collaborates with the Roman colonizers to crucify him and finish off his Nazarene sect. They kill and bury him only to discover that he rose again. We celebrate this event as Easter.
About six hundred years later a new prophet, Muhammad, started a religion he calls Islam, “servants.”  The Muslims fought against the rich families who dominated the Arab peninsula, each worshipping their own Gods. When Islam was established one of its main pillars was the observance of fasting during the month of Ramadan. All able Muslims are to fast all day for a month so they will experience and remember the plight of the poor. Another pillar of Islam is almsgiving.
In April 2020, the three main holidays converge closely together. It is an interesting coincidence. The year 2020 also happens to be when a world pandemic that has no known cure is raging around the globe and also an economic system popularly known as the free Market is collapsing for several reasons.
I searched opinions about the unusual events and was inundated by the opinions expressed by experts, religious people, and laypeople. At times like this, people’s imagination as well as researched and intellectual opinions go wild.  What is not just imagined is the fact that an invisible virus is infecting humans very easily and is threatening to kill millions. We have no other defense but run away and hide in our homes.  This strategy is guaranteed to starve us if we don’t take the right organized action. Some are naming the catastrophe, the eleventh plague.
The coronavirus COVID 19 is a human killer attacking equally. It doesn’t discriminate, kills humans as if we are all one race or nation. The world comes to a stop. Some nations have been preparing for the eventuality and they have better survival rates while others tossed caution to the wind and suffer the results. It takes years to build good health care. Canada chose the middle ground and is poised to succeed in saving most of its population and a significant portion of its economy. It doesn’t look as rosy for our only neighbour.
In the present age, the biggest enemy of humanity is its own greed. Just as in the religious stories which we are celebrating, large portions of the human population are not sharing the great wealth which humans produce. Great achievements have been made, yet most people are threatened with the possibility of not being able to sustain themselves and their families.  
COVID 19 is a horrible enemy,  yet it may prove to be a great equalizer. We are witnessing a huge increase in human deaths, enough to make everyone pay attention. What COVID doesn't know is that our economies are disproportionately hurting the poorest. A huge portion of the human population is facing destruction. People all over the world will not stay home and die of starvation without taking whatever action they can to save themselves. When death is imminent humans throw caution to the wind.
Here in Canada, the government is taking steps to prevent disaster. Our healthcare that was ravaged for years is still coping and our improved social safety net will save us from the worst. We are unrolling something close to Universal Basic income and there will be money to restart the economy.
South of us, the situation looks way more alarming and any possible corrective action may miss the deadline. The truth is, I am scared for our neighbours.
 The COVID virus may be just a random phenomenon of nature. It may be a tool of the devil or God. It could be the alien invaders that science fiction writers have been anticipating for generations taking the planet away from humans. I wouldn’t know any more than you do. It is killing people indiscriminately, scaring people to death and ruining the world’s economies. It shows some positive aspects as well.
Some kids in China noticed, for the first time in their lives,  that the sky is blue, not brown. A news reporter from Venice mentioned dolphins in the famous canals, which normally stink like a sewer. Two reporters asked Prime Minister Trudeau why are we not just converting to “Universal Guaranteed income” since we can afford it.
Society is waking up and realizing what we have done and what we could do better. We can develop an economy for the common good instead of for the good of a few. Don’t let our resources hide in tax-free havens. That is where the money would come from.
Canada will come out of the current disaster better than it was before. All the money which the government is spending to keep us alive will work through the ranks and rebuild what we lost plus more. Resurrection is possible.  
Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Sunday 5 April 2020

Seen an angry raven yet?


 Seen an angry raven yet?
I don’t watch the Lethbridge news often, but I just did. I normally try not to rant without giving some positive or spiritual comments, but I am at the end. Where is the good stuff to write about? Where is my provincial response to the crisis we are facing? Are “our friends” in Edmonton aware that we are in trouble? Are they going to rescue the old Pass Herald which has been a source of information to 6000 spread out hard-working Alberta rural residents? I don’t think they even know that we exist when it is not election time.
The Lethbridge news today covered a few items. Our schools are being gutted, starting with the most vulnerable kids who are losing the teaching assistants, councilors and any other help. Sundre is losing half of its doctors. Women in labour will be transported to give birth. The list is too long to repeat here.
At the same time, I see my Premier announcing that Albertans, that’s us, are financing the Keystone Pipeline to the tune of a billion and a half dollars which will provide 7000 jobs for a while and help export our expensive oil after refining it in Texas. That is the US body. You said that they are gouging us. We lost hundreds of thousand jobs because we are beating a dead horse, oil that is too expensive to sell when the Saudis can just open a valve a few turns more and sell theirs for $5.00. I am not a businessman, but I smell fish.
I have been to hospitals in Alberta every few years. In the late sixties, I just walked into the General Hospital and received treatment. It became worse. In the nineties, there were dozens of us sitting for many hours waiting in Emergency for a nurse to see us. The old General was imploded. In the seventies, I worked and paid for my University education. After 2000 my daughter got a BA and was left to pay a huge bill. Now that she is a nurse, they want her to reuse a mask and endanger herself and her family.
We had our good times when oil was over $100 a barrel. These were the times in which we gutted our institutions. Governments built infrastructure like hospitals and understaffed them.
COVID the silent human killer came to change all that, in a brutal way.
I look at news from the US again. The New York Times has an article about Donald Trump offering that the government will pay hospitals to treat COVID patients. This is a Single-Payer Health Care system. The sky in cities is blue again, and families are getting to know each other.
This time we were caught with our pants down. “We humans” built infrastructures that can’t survive facing nature. Even if there is no pandemic in the next fifty years, we know that there is a large scale disaster looming thanks to our burning things for energy. We will face a crisis of epic proportions. The solution is regulating ourselves now when we still can. Like any machine we ever built, high and low limits must be installed for our safety.
Our biggest problem is that we are intertwined with an economy structured for selfishness and we are far away from advanced countries who care about their populations and invest in them. Our hospitals are at the low end of civilized countries, and we are cutting their budgets. No wonder there is a high demand for assisted suicides.
The solution is obvious. Call it Democratic Socialism or another name. Soon Artificial intelligence will leave half the people out of work.  The dying oil industry will do the same. We must have lower and upper limits installed. The lowest amongst us must be able to sustain basic life.
A poor child may become the next genius who will save the world, eg. Jesus, so he or she needs education, medicine, food, and shelter. If we don’t sustain all the world’s population, we are in great danger. Next is the high limit. The most skilled and ambitious person should be rewarded highly. Let them live in a beautiful house, have a private jet, eat-in golden plates, but no more. All income must be taxable in the place where it is earned. People shouldn’t inherit great wealth and be like the Donald and his kids. They must earn leadership and power each time.
I admire people who are born with titles and money and give it up, but I would mandate that they will. We should never give huge rewards to the richest and borrow it back in times of disasters. We should never pay “investors” for using our money to enhance their profits.

By the time you read these words, it should be Easter. We tend to think about Easter as the resurrection. People like the warm fuzzy positive story. They miss the real story, which is harder to digest. It is a story of a leader who showed in an example that you and I should do the right thing. There is no other way available. Some will cheat and bear false witness, others will be scared and deny they even know you. Your pretend friends will sell you (for 30 silvers) while the duty-bound will crucify you.
Our job is to do what will save people and the rest of God’s creation. Don’t be the cheater and don’t deny the needy because some people are backstabbers and cheats. Teach the truth to those who listen and have faith that all will be set right by a power that we do not understand on the conscious level. Ignore the bad news, do what is right, and the good news will come. Do what is right.
Happy Easter.    
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...