Seniors fighting for their lives.[

 

Seniors fighting for their lives.[

Nights of White Satin.

It was 1968, and I was driving the old Chevy Nova from Pincher Creek towards the mountains. On the radio, a song, “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues was playing. I was making the biggest decision in my young life. In a while, I would turn 18 and could leave Canada without my parents and go back to Israel. I had friends there, did the tests to get into the Air Force, and economically would have been ahead. My $1.25 an hour here was not hard to beat.

It was evening time and I could see the mountains getting closer, under a full moon. The beauty was overwhelming. My first Christmas in Canada was amazing. A family I didn’t know invited my dad and I to celebrate with them. The Prime Minister of Canada was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. So beautiful, kind, and well-meaning people and, in my future, there was a Canadian girl I was to spend the next fifty years with and I stayed. I never went back, even for a holiday. Canada was my country and Alberta was my province.

Shortly after Canada started Universal Health Care, I was able to go to University at minimal cost and I had religious freedom that was not available in Israel. I had lots of struggles but no regrets until 52 years later in the unforgettable year of 2020. I studied and worked as hard as I could for my place in the new world. To me, the beauty of the place and the people was most important until I heard an American politician say, “It’s the economy stupid.” I am still not fully convinced, but things have changed since 68.

The oil-based economy attracted new people to the province. The good-hearted kind peace-loving hard-working mostly rural people of Alberta became a minority in their own home. New people arrived with intentions of making a quick buck and leaving. Investors came to rip profits and not even stay in the province. They wanted all our services but didn’t care to invest in the future of a province that they just wanted to use. Some only wanted us to propel them into political careers or gain job experience and go home. Home for many of them wasn’t here.

My wife and I paid our dues, worked our hours, and saved for retirement, intending to spend it locally.  Being “snowbirds” never was a choice. Contributing work and treasure to the community was always a budgeted item. We missed the actual point in which Alberta changed.

Just like millions of others, I was disturbed by the steady rise in the gap between the rich and the poor. It didn’t look sustainable. At the same time, I became very aware of how the rising inequality steadily contributed to a rise in conditions endangering the wellbeing of humankind upon our planet.

A sickness came over the land at a time when the economy was overdue for one of its cyclical crashes, particularly damaging for Alberta’s oil-based economy. As often predicted, the oil economy was temporary. Some here tried hard to extract money from our oil, but the world changed. Now the vultures are fighting for what is left. It served to highlight what is the nature of us, the people.

The pandemic disproportionally ravaged the old people like me. Being an old-time Albertan, I expected a united effort to save our lives, but the opposite happened. In July dozens of people began public demonstrations against the most effective way to save our lives, wearing masks. An acquaintance told me, against all evidence, that I can wear a mask, but he is not going to and all will be OK. He backed his idea up with some conspiracy theory cooked up by his money-hungry political organization. Others were commenting on social media that we should be happy to give up our lives for the economy. They were fighting for what they think is “freedom.”

I expected my government to be the voice of reason. The Premier came on with a story about a small business owner begging that her business will not be destroyed. He didn’t say that the government will help and we will all fight together; he sacrificed us, the most vulnerable. No lockdown and no help to those economically affected. No enforcement of wearing masks either. This is the guy who a year ago told Rex Murphy that he wants the Federal government to fight environmentalists in the woods to allow pipelines on their lands. Freedom to risk my life is not as important as the freedom to make money on selling oil to China while providing a few temporary jobs.

What makes sense to me is, we all take action to face the threat. We must use our savings from the good times and borrow if necessary. When the danger passes, we will all start paying back, starting with those who can afford the most and going down. Canada overall is doing it, and now the rest should join in. If we save our small businesses, who mostly volunteer to help, we will soon have a robust economy again.

I don’t feel comfortable complaining a lot. I never expected the world to be perfect. Some seniors are talking about fighting for their lives. I don’t. We would destroy what we worked hard to build. We care about people, even those who fight for their freedom at the risk of our lives. We care about future generations that will happen far after we are gone. Yet, we are not the “do nothing” generation.

We are leaving a much better world to new generations than that which we received. The biggest problem for most is to have enough work. There is an abundance of food and all else if distributed equally. Now please consider letting us live the rest of our lives in peace, enjoying what we have worked and paid for.

A government is not a charity, it is insurance for all the citizens.

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

---

 [AMP1]

God’s law or natural order.

 

God’s law or natural order.

Here in Canada the year is divided into two parts and people have no choice but to adjust. We can escape the winters by travelling to a warmer place, but the plan is unsustainable for most folks. Even if we could all fly to warmer places and have winter homes, the world would change because of the garbage we spew out of the exhaust pipes doing it. It’s winter than summer and we must learn how to live with it. The world is perfectly designed and built to sustain us and all that we need. Most human bodies also are made to survive and thrive on this earth.

When you get old, if you will, you can’t remember when things happened. Life is divided into sections between life-changing events. 1945 the war was finished. Around 2000, the twin towers were destroyed in New York, and in 2020 a noticeable pandemic killed many people and caused havoc with the economy. Inadvertently the conditions exposed significant problems and forced humans to reevaluate how we treat each other and the planet. It’s amazing that it happened just at the right time. Is there a mind of the universe causing events? (God?)

We assume that all of nature is built like us and around us. Not long ago we were sure that the universe circled around the earth and that humans were the central figures in creation. Now people believe that all things just happen by chance and miraculously sustain our species. I have no problem with that. Only my theory assumes that we have a prominent role in determining what happens. It is not our brains that cause the future to happen; it is our understanding. We have the gift of life to learn and what we learn determines the future of our universe.

When I say “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” I assume that my will is influencing Him. Otherwise, why would He tell me to pray? Why did the Son of God say that what belongs to the Father belongs to Him and through Him to us? There are many more examples.

I am not convinced that the brain is the mind, and the mind is the soul. Frankly, I am sure it is not. I watched a murmuration (flock) of starlings perform an aerial show. I saw a school of fish doing underwater acrobatics and studied Leaf-Cutter ants build complex social orders and hives that dwarf our cities from a hundred years ago in complexity. Try to follow the biological formations, trees and even grasses, noticing the order that keeps them alive. We are not even touching what is outside of the earth in this article or the microscopic dimensions that we are made of. The universal mind or even my subconscious mind is by far more advanced than our present-day technology. We can influence the universe and our own existence with something that we crudely named “faith” or “belief.”

It is wonderful that the human-animal advanced so far ahead of all other life forms on this planet. For thousands of years, we expressed knowledge that we, through prayers, magic, meditation, and other tools of faith, have influenced the way things are. Could we be completely wrong? If we are I am sure we would have found out by now.

Unlike animals and plants, we have a problem that we can’t solve. As the story goes, people got close to challenging God for dominance over creation when they tried to build the tower of Babel. It’s just a story, but is there a grain of truth in it. Ask any good liar and he will tell you that the best lies have some truth in them. Our problem is that we fight against ourselves. In the tower of Babel story, people were split up to speak many languages; perhaps formed into various races.

When the collaboration was destroyed humans were no longer a threat to the universal mind and went to spend the next few thousands of years learning what they/we should have figured out long ago. Selfishness and competition can propel us to greater effort, but we will slow each other down. If we want to go forward, we must do it like the starlings who by all flying together aware of each other create an impossible formation.

That is achieved in nature by forming little groups, often seven individuals, co-ordinating the groups into larger groups, dividing the goals amongst many, and so on. It can’t be achieved by one group dominating the others. It is an expression of the Universal mind through collaborative action.

Now when I see nature forcing us to work in “bubbles” “cohorts” and so on, I am reminded of the natural order. I see us being forced to wear protective devices to protect others. It is becoming very obvious which people make efforts to help others and which don’t care. I see governments leading their people to help each other and reopening their economies safely (like New Zealand) while others do the opposite and suffer the consequences. (Like the USA.)

We don’t know how many species similar to ours have formed civilizations that lived, died, and disappeared in the vast universe. We know of some in the human past. Now we are facing a crossroad which demands attention with possible lethal consequence.

All I can do is advocate for the direction which makes the most sense to me, and I do. It is not the most popular direction where I live, but I am not here to win a popularity contest. The two-thousand-year-old solution I am proposing is not my own either. Do on to others as you would like them to do to you. The “others” are our offsprings, many not yet born. Yes, work harder now to save the unborn. Sounds familiar?

Happy Thanks Giving to our American friends.

How to break a contract.

 

How to break a contract.

If we take a newborn baby and leave it outside, it will die. It’s a complete human being; it can’t survive on its own. We are born into a contract with our society. The first part of life we spend on growing and learning how to be human. We accumulate information and physical strength and go on to learn how to be useful. In most cases, the parents raise us, and society steps in to help.

When we are mature enough they train us to do our share, pair up and reproduce, giving some time to bring up the young. Another obligation is to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. The sick, handicapped, and most importantly the old, often aging parents. This is the social contract. It is like a cheese sandwich. You must eat the bread on both sides to enjoy the cheese between them.

If we break the contract, it is the end. People will not have a reason to have and raise children, will not trust that they will be taken care of, and try to take care of themselves. A few will succeed, but there will not be enough abled bodies to take care of the rest. The social order will collapse. Some people will use others to care for them, but those others will not be blind to what faith awaits them. They are human also and will use all of their abilities to change an unfair contract. For every action, there is an equal reaction. When there is no other option there is war.

History is full of examples where some people tried to break the contract and failed. When Hitler began thinking about saving money by ridding Germany of unproductive people, he took some small steps over a long time. The education system was slowly changed, a propaganda machine was developed, and unwanted people were demonized and blamed for things they could do nothing about.

Slowly the unwanted were removed from highly visible positions and described as cheater, losers, stealers, and subhumans. Handicapped people were killed “mercifully” and their deaths were assigned medical names. Even soldiers maimed in the battle of Stalingrad were euthanized and the telegrams to families stated their brave sacrifice, (I was told.)

Here I have been observing a slow movement towards making life more difficult for the labour force for years. The quality of healthcare is diminishing (Not the service) and there is a push towards a two-tier system. Soon expensive modern treatment will not be available for the common people who can’t afford it.

Education is dwindling and becoming less effective for those who can’t afford private schools. Higher education is now out of reach for many, while the institution that provides it is filled up with higher-paying foreign students. It is obvious that we have moved towards “efficiency” meaning saving money, instead of investing our tax dollars in our needs. The saved money is not showing up to support the growing need for helping the elderly, who lately are severely under attack by COVID-19.

Instead, there are conspiracy theories circulating telling people that the present pandemic is a hoax propagated by drug companies and others. They claim, amongst other things, that the medical profession is blaming the pandemic for unrelated deaths which would normally occur, anyway. Those are of questionable quality and meant to confuse the less intellectual crowd.

Presently Canada spends a third less than other western nations on senior care per capita. We also have Health Care, which doesn’t supply needed medications and related services. Our population is forced to use the most expensive polluting transportation option, namely private vehicles. If we try to fix the problems, we are told that we can leave. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The kids who can’t afford good daycares or schools are the future. The patients waiting while getting sicker to get care are the workforce, often those who feed and take care of us. We built the care homes, private and government-run and we pay a lot more than what we get to keep them open. The people in them, miners, farmers, teachers, mothers, and grandmothers are those who raised us trusting that they would be cared for when they get close to the end.

Now they are packed like sardines, have only half of the care time that a senior gets, let’s say in Germany, and left to die alone in filth if there is a pandemic. The homes are not regulated and inspected properly, and our leaders are working day and night to reduce what is spent on them. The hospitals are earmarked for the same “to reduce taxes” but not for you and me. My taxes only go up either directly or by the government squeezing municipalities and schools to the bone.

I was told by a medical practitioner that patients in long-term care facilities are often left to die, even if they want to live. We don’t let people have abortions or commit suicide, but we let people die if they are old and catch a virus because we failed to take steps to avoid it. Humm… I wonder.

On remembrance day we say, “those who gave their lives” and so on. I have seen wars and knew people who lost their friends. I can tell you that in most cases people sacrifice for the social contract they have with those around them. That is the human way.

Some people are brainwashed to think the economy is all that matters, but they are wrong. The economy is what we hire the government to look after, without breaking the more important social contract. If we break that and lose our humanity, we are doomed.

Thank God that women and young people are taking on leadership positions. Perhaps they will do what the men failed to do and save the human species. There is more to life than profiting from other’s existence.

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

The Don is gone.

 

The Don is gone.

Through my window, I watched the Turtle Mountain. Slowly little snowflakes started their way down towards the yet green lawn until all was a blur. Slowly turning my gaze to the computer, I noticed breaking news. For the last few days, people in the US were counting ballots and nothing changed. They were stuck at the same numbers of electoral college votes. The President raged that they should stop the counting where he was losing and count harder where he expected to win. If he didn’t win, he said, the election would be viewed as stolen from him. First, he said that he won and as more votes were counted his win, like the mountain, became blurry.

Now four days later a new president is elected. The country and the world are celebrating. I must admit that I wasn’t expecting a worldwide celebration. Surfing through websites, I realized that this may be one of the occasions when the earth exhibits a measurable increase in human happiness. Some scientists measure this kind of phenomenon. How can one man scare so many people for so long? As the US president, he can destroy the world.

I go back a few years to explain my feelings. I remember a reality show named “The Apprentice.” I never watched it, but I remember the host who later became president going through a room full of people saying to some “you are fired.” At the time I wondered if the rich b----- knew what it meant for people to lose their livelihood, but it was just a show. Later I learned a lot more about that person, how he abused women, fired his friends, cheated on his taxes and so much more. Here was a master who could play on people’s evil, selfish emotions, fears, and hate better than anyone.

Evil people from history look like characters from stories, and we expect them to lose by the end. I met many of their victims. This guy looked as if there will be no end to his story. In a short time, he changed the greatest country and the world to his benefit and made people forget what we used to know as morals, values, and honour.

I remember him treating people like garbage, threatening with violence, calling his ex-girlfriends ugly, pushing heads of states out of his way, and so much more. It puzzled me how come he is not concerned with the next election, but he wasn’t. He was bred and raised to lie, bribe, and cheat so convincingly that he always got away with it according to his niece Mary Trump.

The statement I remember most profoundly was “I love the uneducated.” Why would he say that? Looking back now, I understand. Most people are uneducated, and their labour provides the worst liars with power and wealth. They are defenseless, but believe that they are smart. Consequently, those who are not ashamed to take advantage of them do. The uneducated and simple-minded try to please those who exploit them expecting some payback. There is only payback while they can still be used, but they don’t know it.

God, the universe, or Karma as others call him, is never short of ways to destroy our world. A large solar storm, a big volcanic eruption, a meteor, or a tiny virus can do the job. It looks like all of those things happened before. We live by the grace of God under his protection. All of what we know can be gone and a new world can begin again without us. All that we consider beautiful can be gone very fast and something else can take its place. So why are we still here? Why is one evil man able to destroy us?

The ancient writers of our most revered texts pondered that question and came up with conclusions. We are sons and daughters of God, the creator, but can only destroy ourselves slowly. It takes time to build superweapons or use up the atmosphere of the earth. There is time for humans to consider what they do, time for what the bible calls repentance.

We are presently at one of those stages when we must make critical choices, and we just did. It seems like we bought more time to consider what we are doing. New Arms Control treaties will be negotiated, we may change our main energy supply sources and perhaps avoid the destruction that an unknown virus can unleash upon us. I remember a famous line that said, “We live to fight another day.”

Another winter is coming and I expect it to be a long one. People will make a choice if to be alone, untouched, or risk sickness and death. By now, most conspiracy theory believers can see for themselves that there is a real danger even in a mild pandemic such as COVID-19.

People who make a living from oil are witnessing proof that humans are able to change the weather and don’t have many years for a smooth transition to other energy sources. Those who wish to save money on the poor and give it to the rich are waking up to a new reality. The poor seem to have an ally above our immediate reality.

I have been living in the best country in the world and have many more benefits than I ever expected, so I can’t complain. However, there are billions of people who could be much better if selfishness, lying and cheating were better managed. The US latest elections give me hope.

God is not destroying us, only giving us warnings and time to mend our ways. If we win, we will eventually be in his true image. If we lose, well, he will let us hang ourselves. The first step is to get rid of liars and demonstrate love and sharing. After that, the lines get blurry like the contours of Turtle Mountain in a snowfall. We can’t cheat on his tests.

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

Divided we die, United we stand.

 

Divided we die, United we stand.

A long time ago I learned the saying, “United we stand Divided we fall.” It’s a true statement. Human beings are separate from each other, yet completely dependent on each other. The whole world of humans is built with all parts related, independent, yet needed for the survival of the whole mechanism that produces and sustains what we call life. The living things exist in a conflict between competition and co-operation, neither able to exist without the other.

I am writing these words a few days before the USA presidential elections. By the time you read it, the world will change to some degree. The people of the US care very little about what Canadians think, but we care a lot about the direction that the big neighbour will take. It has great consequences for us. I feel like a child listening to his parents shouting at each other about having a divorce. Like that child, I try to think about what I should have done to prevent it, knowing that I could not do a thing.

I remember a story of a survivor whose entire village was exterminated in a war. He could not forget the cries of a little girl crying, “tell them to stop mom, I will be a good girl.”

People don’t want to know what’s going on, finding it depressing. I understand. Reality is what the mind conjures from signals that enter it through the senses. However, there is no way to ignore that which everyone agrees is reality.  

The only superpower left in the world is controlling the destiny of men and women. The empire is in crisis and its direction is being set by a process called democratic elections. It is a faulty process, but it is what it is, and I don’t even have a vote.

A few days ago I saw a video clip. In it was a parade of golf carts showing support for a political ideology. People advocate that stream or political party, thinking it is for fiscal responsibility and moral values. One of the golf carts moves closer to the camera and an old man shouts, “white power” pumping his fist as he went on. Later, the president retweeted that video. It is clear what they are truly all about. I am “white” and I am ashamed. A few years ago, I was actively campaigning for that political movement. Sadly, they changed.

I sit here in a tiny mountain town in Alberta, contemplating what my world became and how it may develop. Those whom I admired, people who built vast enterprises, companies that provided jobs and needed services, lost their luster. One of them became the president, building his political power empire on hate and selfishness and fake financial prowess. Some of my friends don’t look and don’t see, but I do.

I like to think I am safe here, one hour drive from the restless sleeping giant, but I know I am not. In a week or a month from now, our neighbouring country could be engulfed in a civil war. It will not be a fight between disadvantaged black people and white folks, it will be between the haves and have nots. When people fight, they lose their rational thinking ability and only fight to win. Soon after they fight for fallen comrades, food, and water. When I heard the president say to his volunteer militia “stand back and stand by” I felt as if I fell into an icy lake. Fear. The stories of the second world war survivors who lived the “brown shirts” takeover in Germany come back.

The hate and inconsideration popularized in the last four years now is evident all over the world. Dictatorial regimes are flexing their muscles and the people are forced into a rebellious mode. There are hot spots everywhere and the weapons manufacturers’ stocks are going through the roof. It is not the world I lived in for most of my life. It is a dangerous minefield. Now politicians are creating reasons for people to hate each other and say that they are the only ones who can restore order.

Another possibility comes to mind. If the most critical election ever failed to bring about change, we will have more of the same. Years of work by scientists, social experts, and environmentalists will be reversed and protections of consumers, working people, animals, and water will be removed.

In my little world, the paradise I enjoy can easily be destroyed. Here is a probable scenario. Destroy the public health care in Canada, (a move favourable to the insurance companies next door,) and remove our excellent example from the sight of our neighbours. Next, increase the size of servings in our foreign-owned fast-food franchise outlets and increase their marketing budgets. In a few years, the Canadians who knew social healthcare will be gone mostly from overweight problems and voila. We can be replaced with workers who do not demand what we have here today and the rich Canadian resources will be traded on the commodities markets without consideration for us the workers who produce the wealth.

To me, there is a need for balance or there will be chaos. Yet the world of humans has been going on for a very long time. Everything is competing with everything else, forming relationships, and overall improving. We don’t win gold medals without training hard first.

What is important is where do we wish to end up and taking the first step towards it. The road will be long and there will be ups and downs. I ask God, What is tomorrow going to be like, and he answers: it depends upon what you do today.

So… whatever comes today, I try to find others who aim for what is good and stand united with them. I watch those who want all for themselves and see them falling. United we stand, divided we fall.