Holiday cards.

 

Holiday cards.

Thirty years ago, we used to get, on average, fifty Christmas cards. Some were from people that we only heard from on the holidays and often some notes told us what was new in their lives. Now it’s a week before Christmas and we have six cards. We sent ours some time ago. Holiday wishes on the screen are not the same. They come and go, leaving an empty feeling. Of course, the price of postage plays a role, but it reflects on the relationships between people as well. There is less commitment and less time for each person. We want a superficial relationship that is down to the bones. Like all things, we go for quantity, not quality in our modern life. Some of my Facebook friends have thousands of “friends” and they are lonely.

Out of the six cards, one impressed me the most. It is a painting depicting a couple of homes in the forest by mountains in the light of a full moon. Could have been taken in the Crowsnest Pass. The written message is, “Peace on Earth.” No religious sayings, just one wish. Rick and Joan, who sent it to us, have no children. They are Christians and lived in Calgary most of their lives. Now close to eighty years of age, why is their number one wish for peace on Earth? Don’t they care about prosperity, the sad state of health care, or our deteriorating safety with all the cheating and crime that is going on? Don’t they want fewer taxes and more services? Why did they drop the mention of our Christian heritage? Don’t they worry about other races taking the country over as they used to?

My research shows that Earth at different periods had over twenty-four kinds of humans, some coexisting at the same periods. Some go back hundreds of thousands of years and we have bones and artifacts to prove it. Modern science improved our ability to investigate those past societies and even reconstruct how they lived. The planet changed and the climate also changed. There were floods, earthquakes, and droughts and changes lasted much more than a human’s lifetime. At times, human populations almost vanished, and at other times experienced overpopulation in some areas. Humans of all sorts and sizes adapted and survived much longer than we homo sapiens existed in the current period. However, we are the winners. All the other types of humans disappeared, and we flourished. There were humans with bigger brains and stronger bodies, but we were more adaptable and capable of working together. Now we are approaching eight billion individuals on Earth and risking the collective suicide of human civilization. I pray not to be the last human on Earth.

I had a dream once, where I was a raven flying over a destroyed Earth. There were cities broken down, ships half sunk and trains overturned. I was exhausted looking for a place to land, but there was none. Everything was broken down and there were no people or other living things. I cawed, as ravens do, but an answer never came.

Peace on Earth, or the survival of our species, should be everyone’s top priority and we have had warnings and instructions on how to achieve it for thousands of years now.

If we want to research, using the latest technology available, the information is free. The Earth is full of evidence of past civilizations assumingly of human societies that often surpassed our present. It’s underwater, under the ground, and frozen in ice. Much of it is simply existing in the open, but people are so used to it they do not see it. When I was in Israel, I saw old ruins that were built by ancient technology that we can’t repeat today. Egypt has a lot more.

There is no way to deal with all the available data in a short newspaper column. We are vulnerable to extinction, but also close to perfect existence as described by dreams of heaven. If we look at the world today, we see great danger looming. Wars, natural disasters, and evil people with enormous power at their fingertips. Our weapons can destroy humankind, and so can our personal want of power. Those who are comfortable are under siege by those who have nothing. Look at the borders of most rich countries. When in trouble we say “God help us”, yet we don’t follow His instructions. It’s simple. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Do it and you have peace on Earth as written on the Christmas card.

In the beginning, God or “Holy Spirit” hovered above “Tohu Va-Vohu” or “formless void” in English, and later He created humans in His image. (Genesis.) We are a spirit that can have a material form created from the dirt of the Earth. A spirit is eternal, but bodies are not. To survive in material bodies, we are instructed to function as one body that takes care of all its parts, which are all needed in some way.

Christmas is coming, and I have a wish. I wish that people, regardless of their religious affiliations, will spend time contemplating the spiritual message that all faiths have. Go with your community, thank God for what we have, and figure out how to spread the goodness. Go to your temple and contemplate what the Christian faith is about.

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

What I want for Christmas.

 

What I want for Christmas.

Christmas 2022 is coming into a world that I hardly recognize. All that I have learned in over seventy years here on Earth is changing faster than I can process the information. Possibly my human brain wasn’t built for that much data to pass through it, but I have computers to help. Almost all the information that I need could be searched at incredible speed, but there is no guarantee that the results are not tainted by fake news. I am expected to know what there is no way of knowing. What I have is my opinions based on the best information I can obtain and a quick assessment done in my head. The old brain is struggling to discover the truth, and like it or not, I sometimes must change my opinions when I discover previously unknown facts. Much of my conclusions are based on what I believe, and I just trust that if my intention is good, I have a fair chance of drawing the right conclusions.

What is special about Christmas, and why do we even have a day off with family and friends? Why do we go out in mid-winter and shop for presents which often are rarely used? Is it to support the low-wage workers who make them often for close to nothing to beat the competition that may sell them for less?

I sit here in my mountain retreat little home studio. That’s the way I like it. Nothing fancy. The walls are lined with shelves, mostly loaded with books. I read the books, but I keep them since they are filled with ideas that over the years made me who I am. Some shelves have gifts from people I worked with. I was a supervisor and my workers used to buy me gifts for Christmas, which I relish to this day. It had little monetary value; it was from the heart. They did it since I treated them fairly and never had favorites. I didn’t take advantage of my position and people were rewarded evenly for contributing what they could. My business is people.

Looking at this year’s first few Christmas cards, I am reminded about the baby whose birthday we are celebrating.

I go back to the reason for Christmas, not considering that it is a solstice festivity that existed since before Christ was born. The babe became a man who walked the same paths that I did long after, but he had a message. The message was so simple, yet it captured the world and changed humans forever. We see people from all walks of life, rich and poor, respecting him regardless if they believe in his divinity. Was he right-wing or left in politics? We don’t have a definite answer. He was pro-people and cared not if they were useful or not. He considered the intentions of the giver higher than the monetary value. Thousands joined His new religion, later millions, and now billions. We should remember that even the Muslims who came away after His departure believe that He is very special and will play a major role in the future of humanity.

What would Christ, the Saviour, ask for on Christmas? I think I should ask for the same. Ukraine is a big issue where many people are killed and many more suffer each day. I wish for an end to it, while there is still some Ukraine undamaged. The Ukrainians are so brave and they deserve to be rewarded, but the suffering is too great. If the Russians and Ukrainians get guarantees for nonaggression, peace may work.

I wish for humans to forget their local origins and races as a reason for war. The human race can retain cultures, art, languages, religions, you name it, and quit wanting what others have. There is enough for everyone and if all are educated, there will be a slowing of population increase. We have proof. What we spend on wars and preparations for wars would be enough to keep us all healthy, fed, and educated.

Our main worldwide problem now is getting the energy to do our work. It is time to quit using the energy from burning things and use better, less damaging sources we know of and can develop. One example is nuclear, but there are others. It’s time to take the big step. It will happen anyway, so let’s plan the change and do it properly. I am not advocating useless delays but real action.

I would like to see us pay less for what we need and more for garbage disposal and recycling. We are drowning in garbage, solid, in the air and water. Taxes shouldn’t pay for garbage removal but by those who make the trash. No trading of responsibility should be allowed.

I would like independent media that would be exposed if they tell lies.

Above all, I think the Christ would like to see more equality. He talked about it. In the last 40 years, about 50 trillion dollars of wealth that could have gone to regular working people went to the richest 1%. In the US, mortality has grown and poverty became a norm. It would not sit well with the one born on Christmas. If I could, I would ask for a cap on wealth. It would go far towards making our home planet more like the Kingdom above or below, depending on the point of view.

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

 

 

 

Worshipping Possessions.

 

 Worshipping Possessions.

Two thousand years ago, gifts were amazingly expensive. There is a good list in the Christian Gospels around the story of the first Christmas. We have reasonable accounts of gifts from archeology and even written history. The most valuable goods were those from faraway countries and were imported by merchant caravans over long distances, often defended by armed servants riding camels, horses, and donkeys for months at a time. Silver and gold made into intricate jewelry, spices, and incense topped the list. There were fine textiles, with silk being the most coveted: ivory carvings, rare gems, iron weapons crafted by one-of-a-kind masters, and pearls. Herds of livestock and slaves fetched a good price as well. Pretty young maidens, even from one’s own family, were often traded, sometimes for salt or tea. Humans valued material possessions and gained favors by giving gifts.

I just spent almost three years in isolation, not because it was mandated by the government but strongly recommended by my physician and a specialist. Amazingly, I discovered I could be thrilled with life without shopping. I never realized how much time and money I was devoting to buying stuff I didn’t need and getting rid of the garbage soon after. Johnny the barber told me I was spending money on junk, but I didn’t believe him at the time.

There is an interesting new book on the market by Paul Berton, the son of the famous Canadian author Pierre Berton, titled Shopomenia. It deals with our obsession, or better, our addiction, to possessing things. There is definitely an attempt here to have us contemplate some of our primary motivations in life. It deals with the psychological aspect of shopping. “We shop because we are happy, we shop because we are sad.” We shop to be accepted and keep up with the neighbors.

Borrowing money and shopping is not bad. It is the grease that moves the wheels of our economy. We demand that all people will work for their pay and regularly try to make others do more work for less pay, but expect them to shop for services and goods. It starts with the raw materials. Humans mine or grow them. The product is transported, refined, and shaped to become consumer goods. Packaging design and manufacturing are added, marketing takes place, and storage plus delivery to retail locations completes the picture. The item is taxed, and the wages that were invested in it are also taxed. This ensures a great deal of employment and profit-making.

The entire system works wonderfully well if we ignore some glaring problems. It is unsustainable. It is based on addiction to things and money. Money translates to power. Most of those who contribute do so for low returns and hardly any acknowledgment, while very few reap the most rewards. The miners, farmers, drivers, and salespeople, to name a few, find it hard to have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, while those who do the least work are drowning in riches. We can all see them owning many mansions and all other symbols of plenty. Stories about people owning hundreds of pairs of shoes, hundreds of expensive cars, yachts, and mansions are often not just fake news. The systematic cheating of workers and on taxes is true as well.

Why do people feel a need for so much stuff is another question not easily answered. I guess that is why we pray, “lead us not into temptation.” Paul Berton answers it with “people like stuff”. He gives an example about a family he stayed with, in the Himalayas, northern India. They had no manufactured toys, TV, games, or puzzles, and had very little furniture, or any other western-made items. As far as he remembers, they were some of the happiest people he ever met. He also remembers people who won the lottery, some millions of dollars. So many used up their winnings very fast and had nothing to show for it. One said, “Life has more meaning when you are not shopping.”

Now we have new ways of shopping, like over the internet. Many of us realize it can easily become a risk to our existence when overdone. The cheap unneeded goods, packaging, advertising materials, transport, storage, and energy used for manufacturing, are all together threatening our existence on the planet. I am excluding overeating, related pollution, make feel-good drugs, as well as artificial beauty achieved by cosmetics. A little is great, but we don’t use only what we need. We go overboard.

The world has changed significantly in the last few years. Wars are raging, natural disasters are more severe. There is a lot of suffering and all can see it on electronic screens. We would be foolish to ignore the signs, and “Positive thinking” will not save us. We must learn self-control and empathy. Not doing so is not weakness but stupidity. This is a Christmas like no other coming our way. There is a new meaning to the old prayer, “Deliver us from evil.”

Evil brings suffering and love brings joy to those who give it and those who receive it. That’s the Simple Raven’s way of thinking.

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

 

What is a Canadian?

 What is a Canadian?

It was 1967, and I stepped off the airplane onto Canadian soil, intending to become a Canadian. Eagerly looking around, I searched for what Canadians look like. At the Calgary airport, I couldn’t identify even one. Being a teenager, I noticed other teens were wearing shorts down to their knees, while mine were shorter. Canadian boys at the time also had longer hair than what I was used to.

A year later, I knew that there were hardly any Canadians in Canada. All the people here identified by other nationalities that became Canadian but retained some traits from some old country. People were expressing a need to not be British, and there was a new flag with a red Canadian maple leaf. The indigenous race also had many faces and spoke a variety of languages. They were not the most popular members of the Canadian social order.

As soon as I understood a little English, I was bombarded by ethnic jokes. How many Ukrainians does it take to change a light bulb? I can’t remember but it was the same number as Newfies if told by an eastern Canadian. People joked about Wops, Gays, and Polacks, and they had annoying names for every nation, skin color, or country of origin. I was called a Camel Jockey even though I only rode a camel once in a fair. I rode an elephant twice.

People from English-speaking countries fared better than others, but they were also ranked. There were the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Jamaicans, Africans, Indians from India, Americans with a variety of accents, and of course Londoners who could be identified by their speech right to a neighborhood in the British capital. One young woman said she was a true Canadian for many generations, but her last name was German.

I saw several fields with white crosses in cemeteries. Here were the Canadians. Didn’t matter where they came from, when Canadian freedom and way of life were threatened, they all donned uniforms and took guns. Fascist ideas that now are making a bit of a comeback were not popular with Canadians.

A couple of days ago, a program aired on “The Agenda” TVO, examining reasons young people in Ontario are leaving Toronto in great numbers. Many are heading to Alberta and Nova Scotia. According to them, the number of young people leaving Ontario grew by 94% from 2019 to 2022.

The main reason for leaving is the price and availability of housing plus other economic reasons. The COVID pandemic played a big role. Young professionals discovered they can work remotely. At times, they can work for Ontario wages, living for Alberta expenses. One young lady mentioned that her husband and her can save a thousand dollars a month on rent, saying that it goes a long way towards daycare and paying student loans.

Millennials who are now approaching forty and wish to have a family can no longer afford to live in Toronto. They may lose family support and familiar communities, but find living in a new place exciting. Calgary and Edmonton no longer seem as backward as they used to be. Alberta also is doing a marketing campaign geared to draw them. There are posters on the public transit system that they don’t miss. Others, such as electricians, plumbers, roofers, and new immigrants, see the trend and also move. The interior provinces are being built up at the expense of the larger economies in the east. Smaller communities, such as ours, don’t get the bulk of the population movement, but even a small percentage makes a big difference. Many are looking for public green spaces. It’s hard to beat tiny mountain towns in green spaces and proximity to wildlife.

There is some movement away from Alberta, offsetting the dominant trend. We all know about the doctors and nurses discouraged by the government’s attitude towards them. Some folks consider moving here but fear the negative reputation circulating. They worry about separatism, unbending Conservative attitudes, and the possibility that all the jobs here are oil-related. People are scared to find themselves without public health care or the availability of doctors.

This trend is offset by the fact that after a move, the new folks will be able to change things. They know that the major cities in Alberta are progressive thinking and that even global warming is considered important by much of the population. The wind and hydroelectric projects here are not invisible. Energy companies are not hiding the fact that they are involved in clean energy. Politics can change.

Years ago, I was looking for a typical Canadian and had a hard time finding one. Now, fifty years later, they are more obvious. Canadians are more or less the Europeans of North America, regardless of their skin color, accents, religions, or nations of origin. We are not the European imperialists of the past but a modern, well-educated new nation that 

The story that we tell ourselves.

 

 The story that we tell ourselves.

I was carrying my hotdog, fries, and drink in Costco and there was no free table to sit at. A voice by my elbow said, “You are welcome to sit here. I am almost finished.” It was an old guy with long hair and a beard, much like me. Thanks, I said, sat down, and introduced ourselves. There was some fierceness to him. I knew someone with your last name, I said, he was my professor at University. The old guy surprised me and said, yes, he was my brother. He is gone now. It made me sad. He said he was in Lethbridge for a class 50-year reunion. Wow!

He told me he visited the Crowsnest Pass the day before, to see a friend who couldn’t travel anymore. Tomorrow, he said, he was going back home to work. Work? I took a deep breath. He was at least eighty years old. Apparently, he is supervising some task force to save one of the Great Lakes on the American side. His brother, who was teaching me in the mid-seventies, exposed me to the idea that we will be fighting for the planet’s survival now, trying to prolong human civilization against people willing to destroy it for short-term gains. What a family! Why are some people willing to devote their lives to future human beings whom they will never know? They have a story that they are living here on earth. This guy had a good story. I know many who have dreadful stories. They accumulate wealth and care nothing about others of their kind. They attach their lives to their “investment portfolio.”

Everyone has stories, and to some degree, the stories form their reality. The reality is not what we want it to be, but all our thoughts. Your story includes all your fears, dirty thoughts, deceptive actions, hopes, and dreams, and yes, also your wishes. Those of us who pray mostly tell the cosmic God what we wish for or ask for forgiveness for things we shouldn’t have done in the first place. Often, we include excuses forgetting that the God we are praying to knows all that we are hiding. When we say “God” we have a story in our mind about what God is. He or she, if you wish, is all of what the story says, but there is no cheating. Cheating is only available for living humans and there is a price for it. He is a loving, forgiving God, but we call Him Father or our Father in heaven. A loving father is always concerned with how the children are brought up. If he teaches them to cheat, steal, and so on, he is not a good father. He will pay a price just like anyone else.

I invested a good portion of my life in studying subjects like memories. It is fascinating how it works. A game is played in each human mind. The experts say that we are our memories, but it’s not as simple as that. We forget much more than we remember. “How soon we forget.” What we remember is not what really happened, but the last version we made up the last time we focused on it. The reaction of others who may have the same memories also becomes a part of our memories.

When someone is telling a story, we often hear them say, “everyone has seen it. It’s true.” Not so, as any court official can witness. People remember the same event in different ways. The memories are tainted by what they want to prove, which will match their personal interests. They will be convinced that their story is true, but a camera may prove otherwise. Even a camera is not foolproof, since a human interprets what the camera records. Interpretations may not be the same. The angle of the camera matters. A portrait can be complementary or damning. It will change the story.

Now, in the year 2022, the story of most humans has changed. The story of the last hundred years was full of hope and promise. All eyes were trained on the West and its ever-growing economies. The political system of democracy insured a fair chance of success. People willingly worked, saved, and invested. Billions of people not fortunate enough to share in the good life could see on the newly invented electronic devices’ screens that a better story is possible, and they dreamed. The bubble of hope grew thinner and busted. The elite class consolidated its power and democracy lost the ability to guarantee a reasonably good life in exchange for work.

Beginning in China, a movement started spreading amongst the young to give up and do nothing. Young people don’t foresee a future like their parents had and give up on the American dream. They don’t have children, don’t buy homes and work to improve them, and rarely bother with higher education. They expect the world to burn down, flood out, or be destroyed by nuclear weapons. Many live on a trip of illicit drugs or alcohol. In China, they no longer are willing to work 9 to 9 for $10,000 a year and here they don’t wish to work for the benefit of large monopolies and billionaires.

There is a better story. People working for a better world for all. It can start somewhere and spread amongst all humans. It must start amongst those who have got; not fought over by those who have not.

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

Whose Land?

 

 Whose Land?

If you are a religious person, or a modern scientist, you know one constant thing. All of what you know is from the planet that we are on. Read the beginning of the Old Testament and all that God is reported to have created, including humans, is made from the Earth. Only light originates somewhere else and is reflected by things on Earth.

Every created thing is here since it has a place on Earth. The insects, plants, seeds, and all of what we know will not exist without the planet that some call Mother Earth. The Father is from somewhere else. My kingdom is not from here, the son said. No further explanation, only that it is above. On Earth, anything is above. Religious people talk about Heaven being above, perhaps meaning what the scientists call space. Humans can create a tiny place that is like Earth in space, but not enough for much to happen there. We must bring things from Earth to survive there, even for the shortest time.

Long before there were humans on Earth, all living and growing things competed for space on the planet. When humans came, they fought for space on Earth. We can follow archaeology or stories from the bible and come to the same conclusion. Humans fight for space on Earth. Only some of the space is premium Real Estate so the fighting is most fierce for the best choices.

Ancient people fought with crude weapons and modern people use the best technologies available to kill each other for room on the planet. The largest populations don’t have the most efficient weapons but make up for it in numbers. The latest wars that we have witnessed showed that being advanced and rich doesn’t guarantee to win against other humans. If all the military options are used, we can be guaranteed mutual destruction and annihilation of our species.

Scientists and religious scholars must agree that humans fight when there is scarcity. Natural disasters are most often followed by wars. Major human migrations happen when there are droughts, floods, plagues, or equal disasters. First, the poor and weak perish, some charity attempts are tried and fail, and later people understand the end is on the horizon. When flight is not available, the only thing left is to fight. Those who may have been poor begging refugees go back and learn to fight. We saw it recently in Ukraine when people who had never been close to a gun became effective soldiers, fighting and winning against a well-trained regular army.

I grew up in Israel, where the Jews went after they were almost destroyed. Their ancestors had that land in antiquity and were deported on mass bout the year 70 AD when they failed an attempt to protect it. 2000 years later, the British gave it back to them, but there were other people there. The Jewish race needed a piece of the world, but so did the Palestinians. My parents, who never knew life without war, emigrated to the most peaceful place they could find, Canada.

Some years after I became a Canadian, I learned our own history. We also took this land from others. A combination of disease and human-caused starvation weakened the First Nations and systematic discrimination made them poor subjects instead of proud owners. I will remind you again that all living things need a piece of mother Earth to live on, and it should be able to sustain them.

Now 2020 years after the theory of success achieved by people loving and caring for each other became popular amongst humans, we are facing catastrophic times again. Some hint that it is the perfect storm. Diseases are on the rise and our modern healthcare systems are breaking down. They have been weakened by politicians and starved of emergency capacity, and resources. The planetary natural, self-generating immunity systems are all on overload. We failed to transition to types of energy that can sustain in line with our constant development and accelerated use of favorite resources. Urgent action is required, yet blocked by the self-interest of a few. They are buying political support that many of us are happy to sell. Thirdly, the world’s economy and military powers are restructuring. Old and tired forces are less effective in keeping new players from playing the game of power. The empires of the past are turning inwards and the most populous countries demand to have a role on the world’s stage.

Most people agree that the best way to learn and teach is by example. I look around where I am living and see an opportunity to provide the right kind of example. Here in a Pass between mountains, humans came to trade for thousands of years. Now, this community comprises many nationalities and a sampling of races. It is a seed unique to the human experience. We have a common language and something forged together the ancestors of the community underground in mines. The old influence the newer people and there is an attitude of together is better.

We are used to our place, but people who see it for the first time notice something positive and rare. You can tell by how the place is growing and expanding. Drive from Pincher Creek and look at the countryside dotted with new homes.

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

I Love Crowsnest’s Energy.

 

 I Love Crowsnest’s Energy.

It’s morning and I am in the shower. (Don’t try to imagine.) I am done washing but the warm water feels so good, so I stay a little longer. On the other side of the bathroom wall, I hear the hot water tank, high efficiency, and all, keeping the shower warm. If I listen carefully, I can hear the hiss of natural gas. I know that the world is in danger from CO2 in the air, but I just want another minute. I am addicted to using energy and I can’t stop.

If an addict is seeking treatment, the experts tell them that the first step in quitting an addiction is admitting that they have a problem. Alberta has huge amounts of natural gas and the infrastructure to deliver it to me. I am not worried about shortages, only about the price that I may soon not be able to pay. The same is true about heating my home, using my gas-guzzling vehicle, and discarding things (scrap) made of metal that are smelted using coal. I care, but not enough to change my ways. All addicts are the same about their addictions. The dealers who sell what we are addicted to need to make a living as well.

I went to an open house by Montem Resources. The place was so full of locals that there was standing room only. The free pizza may have helped, but I stood in a lineup to talk to the man who is changing the Pass. He is here from Australia and came for our coal deposits. Not hiding his true mission, to make money, he told me about his project. We have here clean renewable energy at full capacity but we don’t have storage. He found a place where he was going to mine coal, where he can create a hydro battery. The historical Tent Mountain Mine space is ideal for the project.

Water could be pumped up using wind energy and released downwards to produce energy again when needed. The process is working in Germany and proved beneficial. The estimated energy can power about half of the homes in Alberta. We have most of what is needed and need the political support to make it work. It would more than pay for itself. There is one other aspect we must have. That is a person who is able to pull it off. They are rare. Peter Doyle, with his Australian accent, is such a man. He knows energy, is well-versed in extensive projects, and has the right connections. If any of our politicians don’t see the potential of having him here, they should think again.

Here comes the part in which all of us play. Since I first discovered the Crowsnest Pass over 20 years ago, I have been hearing one story. The towns we live in were starving for means to build up the economy. For some reason, people’s imagination could not go beyond coal. Perhaps since in their youth, coal mining was the engine that drove the local economy forward. However, the glorious days of coal were behind us and the mines were closed off. As water for agriculture dwindled, political pressure against mining our eastern slopes mounted and they left our towns for dead. What helped was the spirit of the local people who refused to give up on the place they call home. New people discovered the beauty of the area and dreamed up a future without coal. The area remained viable but didn’t have the kickstart of heavy industry. Slowly, people realized that crying over spilled milk doesn’t work and began to make do with what we have. The towns were cleaned up some, new businesses came and went and we are still on the map.

Some fresh interest in meteorological coal revived hopes, but reopening the mines is a long-term project and we needed immediate first aid. What the world needs now is energy storage, and that is what Montem Resources is offering. Will we receive the government’s help to build it and will the builders be able to make some money on doing it? Yes, if we all do our part. Yes, our future will depend on what we do.

We live in a democratic system, more or less. So far, both provincial and federal governments are paying attention to what the voting public supports. If we wish for a brighter future, we need to make some noise. You know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We know how to do it, but we must support what other Canadians will go for. Just “fighting Trudeau” is a useless waste of our political energy.

We need to change all the signs, from “I love Crowsnest Coal” to I love Crowsnest Clean Energy. When we talk to outsiders or the media, we must remember that every one of us is an ambassador for the place we love and live in. Mr. Doyle is doing the hard, highly skilled work, but he can’t do it alone. The politicians must know what our position is on the subject. If I was advising our Municipal Council, I would suggest some professional marketing campaign by us to support the venture that will feed clean energy to the grid of Alberta. It is more meaningful for the future of our world than all the temporary pipelines that we are currently fighting for.

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

It’s darkest before dawn.

 

It’s darkest before dawn.

Some grownups told me it’s darkest before dawn. Being a curious child, I tried to see for myself but couldn’t. Each night I slept and woke up when it was dawn. Another saying was, “after the darkest storm, there is always a bright new morning.” I could never figure out why it works that way. Why does the world or reality follow some unwritten rule which allows us to have a full life with good and bad things happening and there is always tomorrow? Why can’t I just have good things happen and skip the others? I was bothered because no one could answer those questions. Some people said that God is responsible and others brushed it off, saying that is just the way things are. Everything happens by chance.

Now I have lived longer than the average life span of American men and I still have no answer. I wasn’t avoiding the question, but I can’t find a person who will give me an answer that makes sense to me. Allow me to give an example. For two and a half years, I followed all the government’s and my doctor’s instructions. I lived as if I was in jail to stay alive so I can pay taxes like a good boy. When the government used my taxes to help others who would have starved or got infected, I said nothing. My Federal and Provincial governments made choices, and I honored our elected representatives.

Now the leader of my province changed, without elections or input from over 90% of the people of Alberta, and is changing the rules that her party made. It will be illegal to “discriminate” against folks who chose not to believe that a deadly virus is killing people like me when it obviously does. Here comes a new question to deal with. Can we, as a society, defend ourselves against those who do not follow the laws and possibly change laws to suit themselves?

In my whole adult life, there has been a fight against drinking and driving. Slowly and methodically our society moved towards ridding itself of this damaging practice. Breathalyzers, check stops, arrests, and social pressure all contributed to doing away with driving under the influence. Lives have been ruined by people losing driving privileges, but also lives of victims have been saved. Society didn’t demand to reverse course. We all saw the victims of drunk driving in wheelchairs and coffins, with their relatives crying. Today, no one is bragging about driving drunk, but folks proudly tell that they are not vaccinated. The Premier will hire them to work in the hospital where I must go.

Now we have a situation with a pandemic that killed more people than drinking and driving, but a high-ranking politician gets involved assuming that most of the voting public is anti vaccinations. Nothing new about that group. They existed in the shadows for a long time.

Another politician is bragging about taking away our sports pistols. Illegal handguns are used for crimes, but none of the sports shooters, as far as I know, are committing the offenses. Trudeau is answering the demands voiced by the fake news that convinced hysterical folks that we can remove all the guns from our society. I am all for law and order but watching Ukraine thought me something. It is good for a small nation to have law-abiding citizens who know how to handle and use guns safely.

Our new unelected Premier also is talking openly about disobeying a parliament in which we have our elected representatives. We had a Calgarian Prime Minister for ten years before Trudeau. Does she not understand that if people don’t make changes “legally”, she also will lose whatever power she has quickly?

We may choose to disobey laws restricting the use of single-use plastics. What will happen if the other Canadians choose to ship all their plastic garbage to Alberta? How will it be if Alberta is the only province without $10 a day Day Care? I think we can’t go very far with just hating Trudeau. Some of us should find ways to explain to the rest of Canada why Trudeau is so bad for the country instead.

I would honestly suggest to Miss Smith to work hard and figure out how to make life easier for the people of Alberta and show the rest of Canada the Alberta advantage, which will not be oil. Europe is working hard to move away from oil and gas and it won’t be long before they find it. Perhaps instead of preaching to hate Quebec, we should learn something from them. They set their goals some time ago and worked towards achieving them.

Being a Conservative leader is a dangerous job. Look at Great Britain. We are in some very dark times, just before dawn. What will a bright morning look like? It will be for Alberta to change its focus from pleasing oil giants to building the best province to live in, for all the people who live here. We now have money for the transition period. Let’s use it wisely. Protect the vulnerable, educate the young, and give people the means to build a healthy, diverse economy for the future. Let the next elections be between leaders who will demonstrate care for us, the people who live here.  

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

Fifty years in Canada.

  Fifty years in Canada.

The captain announced that we will be landing in Calgary in so many minutes and I was glued to the window. Clouds hid my future home as we descended to a level from which I could see Calgary, my new home. It was the reason I traveled around half of the world. The year was 1967, and below were mountains on one side, a little strip of land with buildings, and a lot of flat lands on three sides. We landed and began a new life. No one said welcome, but a month later someone told me to go back to where I came from.

When after months of hardship I eventually saw the countryside, I was disappointed. In the old country, there were orchards, vineyards, and little attractive farms, here I saw grain fields and cow pastures to the horizon with little black oil drills pumping non-stop. It took time to see the beauty in it.

Calgary extended from Chinook mall to North Hill mall with rail lines going east and west to take our products to the world markets. Mostly we exported food, grain, beef, etc., and oil in long black tanker rail cars. Alberta didn’t have a caste system, but whatever social order there was, we immigrants were at the bottom of it. Canada wanted us, but the surrounding people didn’t. They thought we came to steal their homes and jobs. I hope Danielle Smith hears about it when she talks about discrimination.

True to the American (or Canadian) dream, at that time, we could work hard, study, and get ahead. Even better, we had some choices about what to do and how to do it. The road was full of turns and hidden obstacles, but if you kept at it, you got somewhere. Most people wanted a steady full-time union job with set hours, holidays, and a chance for improvement. Negotiated cost-of-living raise in pay was nice, with medical insurance, a pension at 65, and sometimes even new coveralls for dirty jobs. Paid lunch and coffee breaks, no harassment by egotistic bosses, and a big item at the time, two days off a week. The people before us already got us the 40-hour work week, no child labor, 8-hour days with overtime, and so on. The stories about always having strikes are just stories. Most of us have never been on strike. Those of us who wanted to, opened or bought little businesses and some did very well. Taking higher risks could finish you off or be a shortcut to prosperity.

One thing that I learned in this life is that everything is cyclical. Nothing stays the same, especially where the economy is concerned. In the eighties the US elected President Reagan, who changed the balance and destroyed the competitive equality that workers enjoyed. Now people don’t get to own their own homes, don’t have a pension at the end of a career, and don’t display loyalty to their employers. The social contract has been discarded and we are seeing the outcome.

Since 1967, Calgary spread over much of the adjoining landscape with concrete and pavement. What was at one time little towns on the outskirts became cities that hardly serve as a reminder of the West that people used to start a new life in. A noticeable portion of the farming and ranching communities are dilapidated or simply gone. Those that remain are trying hard to look like the city and no longer appear to be self-sufficient communities with a character of their own.

The world changed as well. Cities and smaller communities used to own the most needed services, like power generation, water supply, major transportation, and sewage facilities. It was all broken up and privatized, tossed to the mercy of the markets. People believed that the efficiency of the markets will provide the best deal. They didn’t read the first line in corporate goals stating that making a profit for shareholders is the primary goal. Now it came to the surface.

The poor countries are facing starvation and we here are told to find the money for the rising prices of energy and all the other commodities tied into it. The billions of people here and in Europe can only borrow without the hope of ever paying it back. Not on my pension.

I worked, studied, and saved money from 1967 till retirement age, investing in a promise to have a good situation in my later years. I watched my children trying but failing to do the same. Now it’s falling apart. Freeze or eat are the choices. I watch intently, seeing wars and social discontent while politicians of all colors are competing for a share of the mess, and I know what may come next. I am a historian.

When people freeze, drown and go hungry, the ugly side of human nature rises to the surface. Corporations, like Putin’s army, hire soldiers to do their dirty work. The people rebel when there are no good choices. I don’t want to be like the Ukrainian seniors I see on TV. I hope and pray that we will come to our senses. We have a beautiful province, country, and world.

This morning in Australia there are floods and in North America, we are cleaning up after hurricanes. Here we can’t afford the oil and gas that we own and we face a cold winter.

 

Something is dreadfully wrong.

Love Canada as it is.

 

 Love Canada as it is.

When I go to Lethbridge or Calgary, I often encounter people who notice my license plate with The Crowsnest Pass and start a conversation.

I was sitting in my truck, not wanting to go into a store since I have COVID, and a motorcycle parked beside me. The rider, a middle-aged man, asked me, “how is it to live in such a nice place?” “I am used to it.” I replied, “been there for some 20 years.” He said he should have moved there when he was young. I moved in when I retired I replied, you can still do it. “My neighbor did it,” he said. “I heard that the people there dislike outsiders;” he continued. “That’s not what I see,” I replied. “They resist changing the place into a city that the people move away from when they come here. There are many cities but only one Crowsnest Pass. That is our selling point. The unique character together with the scenery makes the place what it is. It is one of the friendliest places I have ever experienced.” The man took a minute to think and went on. All of Canada is going to the dogs, he said. We must get rid of Trudeau. There is nothing easier than that, I said. We live in a democracy and we can vote him out at any time. Don’t you agree? We had an election a year ago and the Liberals are in. I would prefer Chrystia Freeland, who is from Alberta, I added. “Trudeau is wrecking the country.” He mumbled.

Now I am not a political science major or an economist, but I listen to the news on election days. Two provinces dominate elections here since they have the most people. They don’t have to win the popular votes, only win the most seats in parliament. Members of each political party choose who will lead them and the country. I don’t know if it’s the best way, but it’s working and we can change it if we want. It is obvious that most Canadians choose Liberals to be their representatives in each riding. Liberals are choosing Trudeau to lead since he is winning. The Conservatives keep changing their leaders who do not win.

I tell my new biker friend another politician will replace Trudeau, so he switches over to another classical western complaint. “Trudeau is blocking pipelines so we can’t sell our oil.” Wrong again,” I say. “Trudeau took a political risk and bought the Trans Mountain pipeline to keep work going on it when the business case was weak and Alberta didn’t have jobs.” Biker now is grasping at straws. Justin Trudeau is going to kill seniors with the carbon tax.

Sorry, I say, half the provinces have their own carbon pricing and the feds are returning what seniors are paying in carbon tax. It was Stephen Harper’s idea. Before I departed, Mr. biker also told me that COVID is a hoax. My chest hurt like hell from COVID, but I just smiled and drove away.

A few days later, a biker passed me on the wrong side by the town of Frank. It looked like his bike and I remembered my encounter in Lethbridge. By now, things have changed. OPEC announced cutting oil production to increase energy prices. Seniors on fixed incomes will feel the cold and will reduce their food and medical expenses not just in poor countries but also in Europe and America. I may have to wear long underwear like I did when I was little. The increase in energy prices will probably not improve my situation. I may have to reduce the number of times I see my family if gas prices go much higher.

The cash infusion to the Russian economy from increased energy prices will prolong the war in Ukraine. Alberta will also make more money, but there is no plan to use it to improve the lives of ordinary Albertans. All that the newly elected Premier promised is to fight Ottawa for the province’s sovereignty. It happens all over the world where there is a province with natural resources not willing to share with the rest of the country.

I remember 2014 and the situation in Ukraine. The eastern provinces have gas and Ukraine and Russia originally built most of the industry in the Soviet era. Russians moved in to take jobs just as easterners here moved to Alberta. Next came a push well financed by Russia to have more sovereignty and join the Russian Federation. Now we have a big war with thousands of casualties and great destruction.

What Quebec and Alberta must understand is that a small province can’t separate from the big country without another big country taking them over. Every divorce must deal with custody issues and the kids always suffer.

I chose Alberta to be my place and lived here longer than most people around. I chose a line of work that was needed in the province and contributed all the time that I spent here. My efforts helped shape the place, and I never gave it a poor reputation. The potential I saw in it still exists and our kids are now carrying on with the work. The province grew and became a destination known around the world. It always needed to change, but the direction change takes is a choice that we make.

In the later years, people who had agendas other than what is good for regular Albertans took over the helm, and even the remote Crowsnest Pass was hit by politicians’ greed for power. Hating Canada became a goal for some. I don’t like it. Canada is a great place, Alberta is a great place, and we can and will make it even better. If anyone hasn’t noticed, look around.

Material, or Spiritual?

 

Material, or Spiritual?

A few thousand years ago, humans were scared of the fall that became winter. The sun, the giver of life, was disappearing more each day. They had to do things as directed by their spiritual leaders to avoid disaster, and they did. If they atoned for sins, God would forgive and spring would come. Surprisingly, modern humans like us didn’t advance much beyond that stage. We used science to discover nature but ignored studying spirituality, which moves it.

When I retire for the night, I don’t know where I am going. My faith is not in my hands. If I need any information from that time, I will remember a dream, mostly not. When I wake up, I assume I am continuing from where I left off, but no guarantee. As the light of October shines, a reality shows up, and I assume it is as it should be, where I left off the night before, but I am guessing. I don’t really know it. There is no way to know whether what is a picture in my mind is real or not. It is bits of light converted to a tiny electric pulse that stream into my brain and reforms as a picture.

October 1, 2022, at 6:30 am. The war in Europe intensified. Casualties on both sides. Half a world away, millions of Pakistanis are fighting to stay alive in a flooded country. The Queen, our head of state, was buried at a very expensive funeral. Her son has been crowned King Charles the III. He swore to serve the people as a ruler. Shortly after, the new Prime Minister of Great Britain borrowed colossal sums of money to pay for tax cuts for the rich, plunging its economy into an unprecedented mess that could ruin England and the world’s economy. The poor will suffer the most. Here in Canada, hurricane Fiona devastated the east coast making many people homeless, and hurricane Ian did worst in the US and nearby islands. The true cost of Global Warming is showing and we don’t have a plan on how to live with it if we can.

We were told to learn to live with COVID. People innocently threw caution to the wind. Everyone who saved some money and holidays wanted to travel, shop, and party at the same time. The US life expectancy rates dropped dramatically and Canadian hospitals that were neglected over the years could not cope with the onslaught of patients and a chronic shortage of staff. Older patients who paid for health care for years died in transit while ambulances searched for open emergency wards. The solution recommended was to privatize the health care system but pay for it with public funds.

China became upset and almost violent about America helping Taiwan stay free. To them, Taiwan represents a weakness in their national defense. Germany, now being starved for energy, is abandoning its seventy-year peaceful attitude. Someone exploded holes in the unused gas pipeline under the North Sea, causing untold pollution. Riots sprang up in Iran over the morality police murdering a young woman who neglected to cover her hair with a hijab. Brazil is poised to have a left-wing government, but the army is threatening a coup.

There is a severe drought in Africa and projected food shortages thanks to Ukraine and Russia being at war. Millions may starve. The leader of his majesty’s official opposition in Ottawa comes on the news, proposing a solution to the world’s problems. He is going to fight the Harper/Trudeau carbon tax, yeah. Mr. Poilievre will save us.

Outside my window, there is thick fog covering mountains and forests alike. The fall sun is burning through it and a beautiful world is showing up, starting from the top down.

I am living in a world full of dangerous problems that no person can change. We had time to prepare, but we chose to believe that things will not be that bad. Now it seems as if humans are facing a winter from hell. Some of our governments, like in Russia, are truly energy companies that govern designed to make money but are helpless to deal with what is coming. The emergency preparedness that we were trusting to help is inadequate and falling apart. Who shall I trust?

In the past, people prayed for divine intervention. I believe that the Holy Spirit can help, but I can’t see why it should. As you know, reality is often not as important as what people believe. We act on our beliefs. Our actions, more than our begging God for forgiveness, dictate things in reality. That is why the spiritual leaders always told people what to do or not do and left the decisions up to them.

God didn’t say to pray to Him to save the poor. He said what you do to the poorest amongst you, so you do on to me.

This is an unusual year for disasters. Events are forcing us to face reality head-on. We will cut emissions to the atmosphere if we like it or not and it will not be the carbon tax causing it. There will be fewer pleasure flights and other traveling, but will it not be too late?

I choose to do what I can and have faith spiritually. Those who trimmed their lamps and had extra oil were chosen.

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

A world changed in 60 years.

 

A world changed in 60 years.

When I was small, being sick was a dangerous business. We lived in a town of about five thousand people and had one Romanian doctor who was over 65. I was nine years old when my mother showed signs of a heart attack and my dad sent me to get doctor Harris. I had never been out of the house in the middle of the night, but I ran like hell. There were no telephones in town and we had one old doctor with his leather case containing the magical tools of his trade. He was old, but fast. He had to wait for me a few times. There was no ambulance, paramedics, or lab. He gave my mom an injection of something and she lived many more years.

I was reminded of the story last week. This time, I was the patient.

For the last two and a half years, I followed all the medical advice to avoid getting COVID. I am highly compromised, as they say. We had mandates and restrictions, as public opinion at the time demanded, and people were able to cope much better than in most other countries. Canada was better financially able to help people deal with the pandemic. Nobody starved, and no one enriched themselves, aside from the drug companies. They used the money that we gave them for research and charged a hefty price for the vaccine that we paid to develop. There was also a situation with China and another with the US where we paid and were short-changed, but we prevailed.

Since we had a high rate of vaccination, Canadians did well controlling the sickness that killed so many people around the world. The US had two to three times more deaths per capita higher than us. This would not last. It soon became politicized and viewed as governments trying to take away people’s freedoms. Our premier backed down, saying that the pandemic is over and hospitals filled up again. The medical profession lost more professionals, and we paid more for overtime.

At the beginning of summer, I followed my doctor’s advice instead of my political leaders’ wisdom, wearing a mask, sterilizing, and all but felt social pressure to abandon the practice. People were pushing their hands into mine to shake hands while others insisted on hugging. All the friends and relatives wanted to go for dinners, coffee, and travel places. The feeling was, we were vaccinated, so why worry? It’s nothing but a little cold. People ignored the news that in the US alone, more people still die from COVID each week than those who died on 9/11.

It was the economy against medical caution. Those who have businesses that grow and thrive on recreation, against those who are at higher risk for being harmed by the virus. In a world that is used to instant gratification, people came to an end of tolerance for being careful. After all majority of deaths now were in the older, more vulnerable demographics. Against were airlines, cruise companies, shopping malls, and landing institutions, to name but a few. Last Saturday I tested positive for COVID.

When my mother had a mild heart attack that was fixed by an old doctor who ran at night to save her, it was a different world. We didn’t have the scientific know-how that we have today, but we had honesty and goodwill. Now we have big businesses paying for studies designed to prove that vaccines don’t work and that rules for public health are a sign of tyrannical government. Thousands of little YouTubers with TV cameras and some basic knowledge of computers are competing for advertising money, spewing baseless opinions, and being counted as experts without any qualifications, but we count their voices as “public opinions.”

Sixty years ago, a doctor with a bag of primitive instruments and basic medications could save lives by fighting to save people. Now the fight is for political influence, money, and power. The focus has changed. People want money and power to get more money and power. If they can get it by saving lives, they will or the opposite will do. Values and morality changed.

A tiny killer virus exposed our weakness. We could fight for saving lives and suffer some, or go party it up and pretend that there is no problem. People wait for flights while the pilots and crews are too sick to fly and blame the government, and that is what we did. We blocked commerce demanding no restrictions and now I and others are paying the price. I am in pain writing to you.

A wise man said, your freedom ends at the tip of my nose. Yes, your freedom and all freedom have a price. We worked hard to advance science and in the last few years, so many of us chose not to believe in science when it’s not convenient or profitable. We can consume media that is based on studies that are paid for, not done by the most qualified people we have. It’s a choice that we make.

I watch the world news Monday morning and I am scared. Is the side of “Love your neighbor as yourself” still in the game? Are nuclear missiles or doves flying in?

Work or not work.

 

Work or not to work.

When we look at what humans have done on earth, it’s astonishing. Buildings, transportation, great inventions, and billions of humans everywhere. Look at virgin lands as we have here out of town and compare. The human animal who can’t fly, or even jump very high, can’t run fast, or eat food without long preparation, lives in large hives called Cities. People can use energy from outside of themselves to do work. When they fight each other, the damage they do is incredible. They always fight one group against another, probably for domination over each other.

Other life forms only have one goal: to stay alive. Humans are driven by an invisible force to change the planet from its natural state to something they imagine to be better for themselves. An ape will just sit on a rock while a human will make a chair. An eagle will fly as high as he can while a human will develop a supersonic flying vehicle or fly out to space. To do that, human needs the cooperation of many humans. Most humans don’t wish to fly to space, build cities or explore the depth of the oceans, so how will they get together to do that?

Here is a big problem. Some humans need to lead, and many humans must follow and provide work. Hence, there is a reason for conflict and war. Who will lead and towards what goal? The most capable humans know many ways to achieve goals and do not do it without some personal gratification. They can convince others to reach their goals, or try to force them to work. Each way is costly, but in different ways. Others cheat to get their way and scare those around them with their explosive tempers.

Much of humankind is under threat of death, by starvation, disease, violence, or many other reasons. Often, the only way they know how to live is no longer viable. They may flock to the borders of rich countries and do what they can to get in. They will do any work to survive, but their skill level is not needed. A step above them are the low-skilled workers already in rich places. Those in the lead exploit them and make them live slightly above slave status. Humans let other humans live only if they are useful to themselves.

Most people I know need to work to be happy. It’s not the money that they earn, it’s the satisfaction of doing something useful. I have one eighty-year-old friend who builds decks for minimal pay. A lot of older ladies knit and crochet to give the product away to anyone who needs it. My little grandson builds amazingly intricate structures out of Legos just to build better ones next time. Humans need work. Unfortunately, we don’t try to have people do the work that they are meant to do, but work for money. We could have specialists matching the right folks to suitable jobs available to them, but we don’t.

Our governments try hard to force people to do work that will produce high yields for some employers by denying workers basic human needs if they don’t. That is not the right or most productive way. As work is disappearing when we automate all work opportunities, we end up with many surplus people. The world can feed all living humans if we set ourselves the right goals and work to achieve them. The goal must not be to enrich a few on the work of the many as it is now. It must not be to build the capacity to kill and subjugate others, either. Attempts to use people for personal gains will get exposed and will not succeed. People may be uneducated but are not stupid.

The only goal that humans can set and truly achieve is to use the gifts bestowed upon us for the benefit of all of us. There will be cheating, laziness, and attempts to terrorize others. There will be selfish individuals who will try to steal the pay for honest work for their own gratification. Also, some humans will be lucky to just survive without contributing to the overall effort. “The poor will always be with you.” They are the test that we must pass on the way to grow into God’s likeness. We were created to face and pass tests. He is the God of all, not only the rich and powerful.

Humans are designed to be partially dependent on each other, especially at the beginning and end of life. A human is incomplete without empathy, which works for and against each individual. Nature forces us to be a part of a hive, not a superhero in an imaginary game. It takes a village to raise a child, and from a child, a village grows.

Most work hard, more or less, while some are injured and a few are lazy without a good reason. Fewer yet spend time and effort thinking, figuring out, and communicating the results. That is what we are doing here.

We don’t need to hunt others and make them work for less, but we need value for hard work. All of our riches produced by our work should benefit our kind, the animals, and the world that gives us life. There is never enough for those so insecure they need to hoard while others suffer.

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

Provincial Elect

 

Provincial Elect

The sun is red, and the air is smoky. I remember many years ago fires that did that. Every few years, we would see a red sun like that. It would be the talk of the town as much as floods or earthquakes are. Now I have a hard time finding out where the fire is since there are so many of them. All I know is that insurance will go up for those of us who are lucky enough not to be where the fire is. We all pay for it. Since my pension is not increasing, soon I will have to go without insurance. To solve the problem, we need leaders who will work for a long time solution.

The party in power in my province is having an election for a new leader who will be the premier. I watch and read the promises that the leadership candidates make and I fall asleep. They are not speaking about my problems, but about beating Trudeau or Notley. They promise some good jobs for a duration. Just enough to elect them. Here jobs are mostly in the energy industry with a minor improvement in agriculture.

Sorry, I am not interested. The candidates are talking about saving taxes but not much at my level. If they take more of my pension, they will have to give me welfare or deal with a hungry angry me, which is not pretty. I gave all I had to build the province and I will fight if they try to make me homeless in my later years. They talk about “efficiencies” in Health Care and they are effectively destroying the system when we need it most. Again, I am not interested. Pay our home-grown professionals enough so they will not leave us high and dry. That is Capitalism. Let the Market dictate prices. Quebec has an $18 minimum wage and no oil.

I assess the last few years’ successes of the government. They are delighted by investors bringing industries like plastics factories. They will do it with minimum staff and use labour from China for the labour-intensive parts. No benefit for our unemployed, low-skilled people. The bragging about tabling a balanced budget leaves me smiling like an idiot. Where would we have been if Russia didn’t go to war using energy as a weapon, doubling the price of oil, I wonder? At the end of the “debate”, I have only one candidate I would consider making a premier. Rajan Sawhney (Canadian-born) is talking about leading the province based on Peter Lougheed’s principles.

At this point in my life, I no longer believe that ambitious young politicians with English-sounding names (i.e. Smith) will fight for what I care about. They will try to shove me into a shared room in a private care home and save money on my health care costs unless I and others like me will fight the best we can.

In days gone by, people were busy making a living using their muscles and wits, as they still do all over the world. They looked after the young, later after the old, while contributing to the social fabric. The church institutionalized the services and the government took it over. A spoiled society was the result, demanding that governments will provide services without spending money. We became soft and whiny.

This happened with every empire in history. The next step is revolution or a takeover by the less fortunate. If a war happens involving the third world, China, India, and possibly Russia, we will lose our dominating position. The time to act is now while we can.

There are lots of good jobs for all in serving each other, developing alternative energy sources, and advancing humankind to the next level in human evolution. Those who will not contribute will remain at the bottom and not be listened to. What’s needed are good, well-intentioned governments. The time to decide is at an election. We need leaders who build things, not sugarcoat the existing world order.

People must not be tempted to win ahead of others but led towards improving the country. Our goal is not to be better off than people in Quebec but to show Quebecers how to build a country that cares about all its citizens. We don’t wish to live the lives of the rich and famous, but to have a country where no one is homeless. We care about the sick, old, and young and work to improve health care and reduce crime.

Lately, all the talk about fighting with politicians is showing results. Politicians are attacked, their families are intimidated and they need protection. I am watching my country deteriorating. I wish to see an end to the talk about fighting. I will vote for someone who offers hope, not promising to win against the rest of the country or to “beat” the opposition.

I watch the red sunset in the west and the wind change direction. Fast the sky becomes blue, and the grass looks green again. The smell of smoke is gone as if it never was. Change is possible. We must dare to work with and not resist change. I know we can.

Queen over change.

 

Queen over change.

At some point of time around 1971, I stood with a group of people who all spoke with accents, to become a Canadian citizen. We swore allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs. I don’t take oaths lightly. I came from a country that fought the British for independence. Yet my parents came here because they assumed Canada was the most peaceful country in the world. It was the place that runaway slaves went to, and where the English and the French lived in peace and prospered together. With my hand on the Bible, I said the words. I strongly believe in the power of words.

Now the queen is dead, (a prayer for her soul,) and a new king is ruling over the commonwealth. We don’t know if it will change anything, but there is much room for improvement in the world. Here in the remote Crowsnest Pass, we have a memorial for soldiers who served in a Royal regiment and we love our Royal Mounted Police force that serves us well and with honor. We model our government after the British parliamentary system, which is not perfect but works better than most. I am judging by the results, not by hysterical emotions that are quick to change regularly.

In the early seventies, I used to listen on the radio to a program by Earl Nightingale. Some of my older readers may remember it. He believed, rightly, in my opinion, that “Thoughts become Things.” Human thoughts have the ability to use the creative power of God. Every one of us is the sum total of his thoughts. He is where he is because he is exactly where he truly wants to be, whether he will admit it or not. The book we swear on says, as you believe, so it shall be done unto you.

In the seventies, there was a substantial change happening. Science, medicine, and, above all, military advancements were taking place at an unprecedented speed. The human population was doubling itself every few years, and so were inventions that allowed it to happen. I got my first pocket calculator and before I mastered what it could do, home computers were becoming household items and it didn’t stop there. We were able to find a new vaccine for a raging pandemic in months instead of years. I am alive since a few well-coordinated machines connected to a “cloud” maintain my body.

The question we are facing is what initiated such a major change in human development. When Queen Elizabeth was born, most humans traveled on horses and now, she died, and most humans never touched a horse, never mind ridden one. When her highness was a child, we probably couldn’t find a human who said he or she doesn’t believe in God, and now it’s hard to find one who believes that a supernatural mind is directing human destiny unless there is a scientific test to prove it.

Perhaps new discoveries gave us new confidence in our power to change the world or the exact opposite. Possibly the theories that our thoughts create our reality caused the change to happen so fast. We become what we think about. You reap what you sow. It works both ways. You may receive what you wish, or what you are scared of. The universal mind doesn’t know the difference, only does what you think about and become emotional about. It reads emotions, assuming that they are what you want. If your thoughts are sour, you will get lemons, but you can replace lemons with lemon pie.

The best teacher ever gave the instructions in mind control in what we know as the sermon on the mount. “Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and shall be opened to you. For every one that asks it, receives it. And he that seeks it finds it. And to him, that knock it shall be opened.” Most people ruin it by wanting to know how it will be done. It is not our business. All we need is a purpose and faith.

When humans have a clear and well-defined goal, the universe bends towards achieving it, but other people’s goals may change it. If the goal includes others who truly need divine assistance, it helps. Any hesitation or disbelief also causes changes. It is the unseen world that the ancient ancestors knew about, but modern people completely forgot. What we fail to understand with current science we write off as luck.

The idea of what is God also changed in seventy-five years. No longer a church God is mechanically worshipped but a spirituality that permeates all life is being understood by some. A church is the beginning of new faith, but it goes farther than that. People expect God to be everywhere and to know a person’s heart.

The monarch who “ruled with God” always saying “we” is dead and a new king will preside over a new world. Now God is understood to work with humans who can use His power by controlling their own minds. The new king and head of a church may face a reality unknown to the Queen.

What do we want?

 

 What do we want?

The first thing that every living organism wants is to stay alive here on earth. We may say we believe in eternal bliss and life after death, but we do all we can to stay alive here, even if it’s not an ideal life at all. Some people suffer greatly and wish for an end, but others step in to keep them alive. I hear over and over the saying, ”save lives” and no one dares to end lives since it’s a crime to do so. People say only God can give life and take life away.

The quality of life is another story. Nations exploit other nations to take away what they can. Corporations exploit countries and communities. Groups, races, and religions force others like them to live in poverty and misery, often making them hand over not just their natural resources but also the fruits of their labour.

Some years ago, the Western nations, including Canada, waged war on one of the poorest countries, Afghanistan. We avenged 9/11, which they didn’t do, changing the goal midway to change their culture, treatment of women, and political system. They won the war and we take revenge by freezing their savings and causing starvation of the poorest amongst them. We know we will not change them that way, but we need to feel superior even if women there will suffer the most.

When people don’t need to fight to stay alive, they strive for a better quality of life. Any and all humans would like an easy, safe way to live if possible. In my experience, very few people say I have enough and I will give the rest away. We are all insecure hoarding for the future, which is a mystery to us.

I was born into a world of roughly two billion people. The world was considered limitless. My kind of people, mostly referred to as white, viewed the earth as our possession. We had a dream. Working people like us didn’t dream about being millionaires since a class system governed our kind. Royalty and the real high class was a stuff for stories. For us, there was the American dream. People didn’t strive to go to Communist-controlled areas, but all eyes were on the US, including Canada, as a part of it. It was the America that rose from Roosevelt’s dream of the New Deal.

Working people who came back from a long war wanted union jobs, little homes in the suburbs, a car, and basic needs guaranteed. Medical and educational facilities, shorter work hours, a little holiday, often camping, and the newest gadgets that were now mass produced. I remember the adults talking about getting things that are well-made and fixable. Shoes and suits often were made by local craftspeople, and there were millions of little family-run businesses. America and Canada were campaigning for emigrants to come over.

The American dream was achieved, but the population didn’t stay at two billion people. The rest of the world, which was not “white,” began to catch up. People in what we viewed as poor remote places, such as Africa and Asia, bought into the American dream also, but without being set up to achieve it. All that humans needed was the idea of the dream.

Now we have eight billion people in the world. Communism is mostly gone and where it still exists, like in China, it is mostly only a name. No longer does the highest class of people fear the hoards of workers organizing a revolution and executing the elites to take their wealth and share it. It never worked in the first place. Cheating, stealing, and bribing work much better. Money can buy politicians, judges, media, and all other tools of power. Socialism, which birthed Communism, can be used by the rich, like in the case of “too big to fail”, and portrayed as the enemy of the working people.

A good example is a medical system in the United States. It serves only some of the people, leaving many millions of people to fend for themselves, yet it costs more per capita than the Canadian system that serves 100% of our population unless the government starves it.

I find that most people want the comfort and living conditions they see the rich enjoying. They know they can’t have it, so they settle for cheap imitations. Not everyone’s grandfather had a chain of pleasure houses as grandfather Trump is alleged to have operated in New York. Some luck out and make a fortune by their own merit, but most make do serving the rich.

Those who serve, or live where there is no hope, are just waiting for an opportunity to turn the tables and be on top. They know from history that it will come. Those called “The have got” try to fortify their wealth and protect it, but there is no way to do it. The leaders of the Roman Empire hired foreign mercenaries who took over the Empire, and it was forever repeated. The only way is to limit the temptations and be reasonable with how much each takes. This can only be done voluntarily since we don’t start the game with an even playing field.

Humans must kill the ego or give the Earth to the next life form that nature will provide.

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

 

 

Moral compass…

What we humans of the year 2022 call space, the ancient ancestors called the world without end. Also, the World, or Earth in English, is a ball of rock that has no end. Living in a town on some natural land where I can observe animals, I see that they have creative abilities but are far below the human level. I see signs of love, hate, and jealousy, but not morality. Humans make choices based on morality and even in the age of science, morals or lack of morals plays a part in what we do, or do not do. Groups of people, nations, religions, political parties, cults, and others claim superiority over each other. They all struggle with morality.

I look at the world today. Putin is using the huge Russian army to threaten the world. The Russians listen to his propaganda and believe that they are fighting for a moral cause. They fight to defend the motherland. The western business that owns western governments is setting up to take over their country. They die to protect their freedom, or so they think.

In the US, there is turmoil that could start a civil war over who is the rightful president. That is a moral issue. The evangelical churches believe that “Socialists” who stole the elections from a president that they worship threaten their freedom of religion. If the laws and constitution stand in the way, the moral thing to do is change the constitution. They want to stop separating Church and State. A dangerous move, in my opinion.

Here in Canada, we see a new breed of people. Mostly less educated folks who “educated” themselves through conspiracy theories on the internet, demanding an end to our democracy. They want to install a government that will not force them to do what they deem unjust regardless of elections, laws, and the majority’s opinion. If the government tries to protect the people from a deadly disease, the government must go. They claim moral authority to pick and choose laws they are willing to obey and damage the existing system in the process.

I can go through a list of countries where some group or another, even the military, fight for what they deem morality, to gain political power. Often, morality is used for gaining wealth or prestige. It is also used to remove people from powerful posts and destroy careers that took a lifetime to build. It seems as if humans are born with a gene for morality, but what is moral or not is still being debated.

We translate morality into religious beliefs or atheism, which became just another religion. Those who were traditionally tasked with teaching morality, mainstream religions, are found to be some of the major offenders against morality. In a few years, court cases accusing priests, teachers and other people of authority grew to alarming proportions.  

I have a book from the seventies that was used for training managers. It clearly states to touch subordinates and tell them what you appreciate. Now I heard a woman who is suing an Archbishop for harassment saying, “he touched me on the shoulder and I felt uncomfortable”. I personally always felt uncomfortable touching people but was trained to do so as part of the art of managing people. Somewhere morality changed while we were using it.

Now, morality is seeping into business. Self-driving vehicles are available and have fewer accidents than human-driven cars. We hold them back from production because we can’t agree on moral issues that would have to be programmed into the vehicle’s computers.

The war in Ukraine exposed another problem. Both warring armies are using unmanned drones and fighting robots. Mistakes are happening since there is no human pulling the trigger on the killing machines. You and I are voting on the issues as part of political parties' platforms. We have no idea what we are voting for, so we chose a political party with the most popular leader at the time. Look at how many people in the West are voting mainly to defeat Trudeau regardless of the issues governing the country. I am also guilty. I should join the leading party and vote for a leader of my choice.

My church took a public side in the proposed laws regarding euthanasia. As a human with many health issues, I prefer to have an escape hatch if the pain becomes unbearable, but I am voting with my group on issues of morality. I am a hypocrite, I know it, and still do it.

In the West, the moral code of humankind was developed from one book in two volumes. The Bible, Old and New Testament. The Old Testament talked about punishing people if they disobey or defame God and the New about forgiving, sharing, and sacrificing material things for a glorious reward. That reward was a promise of a “Kingdom” yet not available. Both books deal with morality in terms of helping the needy, sharing, and treating others as we wish to be treated. We can easily assume that the Heaven we strive for is the same world with ethics and morality, beating selfishness and cheating.

The Bible doesn’t mention abortions, euthanasia, or other political matters but is concerned about love, faith in God, and treatment of the less fortunate or those unable to win in the game of life.