Pipelines, BC wines and freezing in the dark.

Pipelines, BC wines and freezing in the dark.

 

Personally, I am in favor of making one giant leap and converting to clean energy, but I realize that it will take time. I know that Trump and his likes “love the uneducated” and I know why. We are all educated by Professors, scientists and PhDs and my teachers taught the same thing over and over. The teachers were saying that if we don’t stop pollution, we will destroy the world including ourselves. They also taught moderation. I remember a Geography professor encouraging us to get into the habit of using fewer paper towels and even less toilet paper.

 

My University did a lot of oil research, but you couldn’t go a day without being warned about the danger that oil presented to our future. The saving grace,  they believed, was that oil would run out and humans will develop new ways to produce power. This all happened in the seventies. We didn’t yet experience some of the worst oil spills, and side effects of fracking, so only emissions were factored in.

 

Years went by, and a lot more oil was discovered and with it came oil wars, regime changes, and new military expenditures to defend those who owned and transported oil. Alberta became an oil province and didn’t develop a lot of new industries. We didn’t use the oil revenues to plan for the future. Oil politics ruled our world. Oil politics and military industries are not “cool” with today’s young people.

 

We were ready for oil to start taking a step back and even had the Heritage Fund, started by Peter Lougheed, and so did Norway. If you have a computer watch: Norway's Lasting Oil Wealth, https://youtu.be/QKbD08I6odw  The only difference was that Norway saved all the oil revenues for future generations while our Heritage fund mysteriously disappeared. A difference in political orientation and business goals I presume.

 

The Europeans are more concerned with their people, while we are more concerned with business. You can see it in every aspect of life. In North America, most people are preparing for the day they may be rich, (ha ha) so they defend business interests instead of citizens security.  Europeans take more holidays, longer time to raise their kids, better dining and don’t mind paying taxes for what improves the quality of life. We are worried that IF we become rich, the Government may take our money, which we don’t yet have, and give it to people on welfare. This belief is more pronounced in Alberta, for example, then in British Colombia.

 

Now Alberta and Saskatchewan in tow, are preparing for war. Just as the Russians did to Ukraine, Alberta’s Conservative leaning NDP is threatening to shut off oil to BC, if the province will not allow oil and profits to flow. We the citizens are fighting for jobs, but most profits will probably not stay here.

 

The Pass Herald is unique since its distributed both in BC and Alberta. gems like this hardly exist anymore. A locally owned Newspaper not bought and shut down like so many other newspapers were. Here are my suggestions to British Columbians.

 

To our BC neighbors and especially Premier Horgan and his government, this Albertan would like to say: Your concerns are my concerns exactly. I don’t want to see a leaky oil pipe anywhere in beautiful British Columbia. Above all, I am very much against polluting the atmosphere with the use of oil, especially dirtier oil than most, but our time has not yet come. We must build up our capacity for clean energy first as Germany did. We must allow our customers in the Orient to do the same. They are lagging behind on clean energy but are catching up fast.

 

Please review the old archived movie, “Oil Across The Rockies.” about the first pipeline from 1953. The pipe across the mountains was placed there for the benefit of your province and so far, never leaked. The people of BC benefited from it all these years. The new pipeline will make life easier for people on the other side of the world. They are human too, and they need the oil to tie them up until they come to our level of being able to use energy wisely while preserving the atmosphere.

 

You can place all kinds of safety measures on the way, use unionized labor and negotiate all kinds of safety measures. You are a trusted popular leader, and without your personal commitment to help this temporary project it may not take off. Please do it and let Canadians benefit from our resources before their use expire. We can even regulate how much of the oil revenues will be allowed to leave the country and how much must stay and circulate in the Canadian economy. Being a BC native, you probably know that the easiest way is to guide your canoe with the stream making small adjustments.

 

To our kin the BC First Nations people, who take the most risk for the smallest gains, I like to say. Please. Let one era finish in peace and new era clean and bright dawn. The world will be using oil for a little longer, and as long as it does, Canada is in the game. We have oil and greed is greater than fear. Investors don’t care about the world as you and I do; they simply want more things that money can buy. It is not worth your lives now when the world is already transitioning. Just like the horses disappeared, so will oil.

 

Let's make sure that you are getting your fair share out of this venture and that it is clear to all that this is not a handout but your fair share. Let's ensure that the pipeline is as safe as can be and that upon the first leak it will be shut off and clean up will be done to your satisfaction. It is probably the last pipeline. In the new contract, all governments must declare steps which allow for coastal people to earn a livelihood safely in traditional ways and never again be viewed as freeloaders as was done by the old treaties. As the world moves to clean energy, oil prices will keep going down, and the flow will naturally stop. Already less and fewer people are investing in oil and in the banks that finance it.

 

Make a stand but do it for a good contract not for shutting oil off before the world is ready. Ensure that you are viewed as the defenders of a new clean world, not the people who impoverished your neighbors, which is how you are being portrayed by the Alberta oil addicts now.  You see oil as a threat to mother Earth, but people here see it as instant prosperity.

 

It took the planet millions of years to produce the stored sun energy we call oil and gas. Oil is a good thing if used in moderation. Our world’s oil reserves are here for the benefits of all future human generations, not just for a few rich people at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Fossile fuel is like opium. In small amounts it can control pain but if a human becomes addicted he will kill himself.

 

If you argue about immediate economic benefits, the Right wins, and if you argue about human survival, the Left wins. Canada has been governed by people who were interested in quick profits for business and now chose a government that is halfway for the common people. The next step is to elect leadership that is completely pro-people and pro-environment as the BC people seem to have already done. We can’t escape the period in which we are forced by economics to rape the Earth simply to have some jobs for some time. Soon enough people will understand that the solution is to change the whole system and go for it. We can’t be bought simply for the privilege of having a way to make a living, called job, and use our work to destroy the world that sustains us.

 

It is not easy to speak the way I do in Wild Rose country. I was once a Progressive Conservative, believe it or not, in the days of the most popular premier of Canada, Peter Lougheed. Those days the party was doing Progressive actions using Conservative means. We had a booming economy and so much was done for the average folks, like me. Lougheed  built my University. Then came Ralph Klein, who changed the party. I knew him when he was a mayor, and he changed views. Concern for people diminished, care for Canada disappeared, and the need for business profits surpassed all other sentiments. The Progressive left the Conservative. Let's fix the problems and not fight each other like caged animals.


A shorter version was published in the Pass Herald.

Empowering Women. April 2018

Letter to Pass Herald. Empowering Women. April 2018

Empowering Women in 2018.

Empowering women is a subject worthy of discussion. Half of every family are women and girls and I the man care about the girls in my family more than about myself. There are so many girls and young women who don’t realize how high they can go, even if we exclude the women who run corporations, lead countries and my own woman Doctor who keeps me alive so I can write this letter. Look at the news from the last week, and see.

Women in the last week’s news:

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Markell refused to join the US, France, and England in the useless bombing in Syria. She said there are better ways to achieve the goal. Germany didn’t participate. A woman leader in action.

A woman named Captain Tammie Jo Shults landed flight Southwest 1380 safely after an engine blew up and the cabin depressurized. She was a navy pilot, prior to this job, flying one of the most lethal fighter planes in existence. “Her calm voice came clear over the speakers of the control tower requesting medical help upon arrival” stated the New York Times. Can anyone watching this deny that women are equal or superior if they work at it?

Look at the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, one of the women who are regularly on the news. When the Americans and allies used more than a billion dollars worth of missiles to bomb Syrian buildings in the middle of the night, reporters asked her if increased sanctions on Russia shouldn’t have been applied instead, which would have been safer and more effective against future lethal gas attacks. Nikki Haley said that the US will apply sanctions within hours. That is what she was told. She forgot that the President possibly owes his elections to the Russians and that the Russians likely have videoes of him with prostitutes which could cost him his presidency. The presidents spoke person, Mnuchin, denounced her statement indicating that she was “confused.” Haley, proudly announced, risking being fired, that she doesn’t get confused and that she didn’t lie. Another example of an empowered, strong woman.

The best example of empowered women is the Me too movement. The girls will no longer be a toy and all power to them.

I will not name Melania Trump or Megan Markel as great examples of successful women, since marrying into money or even Royalty are not good examples of the modern empowered women, regardless of how famous they may become. Women like Stormy Daniels, a porn star who had an affair with Trump, also become famous but serve as a negative role-model for girls. They are yesterday's strong women.

Today’s woman is a confident, beautiful, intelligent female human being. She knows how to handle situations, knows her rights and her limitations. The modern woman is smart and capable while able to accept help since she propagates the species at her own expense. She can lead the nation, run its vital functions, but she still is, mother, wife, grandmother and dearest of them all, Daddy’s little girl. There is nothing wrong with it. God help us all if she chooses to quit. Little girls may dream of becoming Superwoman, but big girls take their place as confident leaders, if and when they wish.

Are we “Spiritual” or “Religious”?

Are we “Spiritual” or “Religious”?
  Often I hear people say that they are not religious, but they are spiritual. Some say that they are atheist while others simply view this as a taboo subject. My beliefs are my own business, they say. All power to them, but I happen to have a great interest in the subject, and I look forward to learning what I can about people’s beliefs. I am not interested in being converted, but at some point, ‘I became interested in how “beliefs” actually influence the material life. My mother used to say “you believe what you want to believe.” People at church often told me what I am expected to believe, apparently if I want to belong to the church. I believe what I want to believe and I learn all I can about the ways others believe. They should have the same right.
I happen to feel in the depth of my heart that the word “believe” is not the same as the word “know.” If I know something, why would I have to believe it? If I believe that my Ford truck can fly like a helicopter it just doesn’t. It seems to me that a lot of people around me identify as spiritual since in their mind they know that there is a God, but they can’t accept the things that they are told that they must believe God is. In my opinion, they are simply honest with themselves. Some of those folks actually dig in deeper and in the process discover all kinds of truths that are not part of our main stream religions, at least not the majority most popular ones.

 Most people in our past followed the religions of their parents and kept any questions or doubts to themselves. When in Rome you do as the Romans do. If your religion, for example, said that you should dress in some manner, you did it unless you moved to some country where it was frowned upon. We like to be unique but mostly in ways that will benefit us. When I was a child, it was common to see nuns in their habits, priests wearing long black robes, religious Jews with top hats and twisty sideburns and so many more items that identified people with some religions. You don’t see it anymore. Actually, it is impolite this days to ask about someone’s faith. Yet, it is acceptable for people to declare that they are “spiritual.”

I began seeking knowledge about spirituality in my younger days, way before internet and computers. It is amazing how much easier it is to get information nowadays. I believe there is power in prayer and here is proof. I prayed to be able to learn more and faster and now I can. I also spent a lot of time visiting a variety of places of worship and talking to people of various faiths. One thing is becoming clear to me. The next step in evolution is not going to be physical but spiritual. There are lots of hints about this in the bible, many religious stories and even songs, yet we have been ignoring messages for generations.
 One of the more interesting views is that of Dr. Bruce Lipton, but there are many. He used to teach medicine in Universities and discovered that stem cells could grow into muscle, bone or fat depending on the environment they are in. As the years went by, quantum Physics came about, epigenetics was discovered and computing power exploded. Now, after fifty years of investigating he is talking, and writing, about spirituality. All his studies led him to conclude that love can lead thought and thought creates reality. Spirituality, in his opinion, shapes physicality. It is easy to say but very hard to prove. If you listen to one of his more recent lectures, it is almost easy to deduct the power of spirituality scientifically.
Another great modern thinker was Allan Watts. Originally a minister, he focused on the idea that we are made in the image of the creator, therefore, go on creating. He used to have a popular radio show in the sixties and died in 1973. By using far east religions and biblical quotes that were not popular in the west, he was able to prove that spirituality is the answer to our most dangerous threats. Watts is a very highly educated Englishman and it takes concentration to follow.
Another great spiritual thinker to check out is Pope Francis, the current leader of the Catholic Church with over a billion followers. He, more or less, separates his thinking from the highly politicized religious teachings of the past and talks about the spirituality that birthed Christianity. There are many, including Catholics, who dispute his philosophy but mostly because he is bad for business. Mainly he is warning that if we don’t change there may be no-one left to change. I agree full heartedly. In my lifetime, the world lost some 70% of species, botanical plus biological and the sixth great extinction is in motion.
What remains is to figure out how to reverse the monster we unleashed. Should it be through religion and “our prayers and thoughts are with you,” through physical, political action or by using spirituality and the power of God in us. My approach is, do it all. Do what we can with the material world, by taking what we need and leaving the rest, and welcome the spiritual revolution that is taking place, as a normal step in our evolution. We humans have worked hard to develop scientists and spiritual thinkers over thousands of years. Let's use their knowledge which is useless unless we pay attention to it.
Avner


Source: Internet Public.

Allan Watts. From public domain.



Bruce Lipton. Source Internet public domain.

April. Fear is in the air.

 

The Simple Raven’s Post, 05-04-2018

April. Fear is in the air.

 

The natural reaction is to think, April, Spring is in the air. When I see the first little bit of new green grass, I usually rejoice. The flowers that I seeded indoors are sprouting, and the thermometer on my deck no longer shows a minus sign in front of the numbers during the day. There is cheerfulness expressed on the faces of people I meet outside. That’s the norm, but it’s changing.

 

Although most people I meet say that they don’t watch the news, either because it’s “fake news” or because it’s too depressing, they know what is going on. Needless to say that the news somehow filters into people’s minds and most folks are very aware of things that scare them. Unfortunately, more people worry about ISIS immigrants than about real dangers.

 

The first item, here in our mountain community, are the possible natural disasters that are by far more frequent then even the old people can remember. Floods have been plaguing our community and surrounding areas more frequently then most people remember. They call them hundred year floods or similar names, but it happens too often causing a lot of misery and huge expense. People may think that if we have floods, we will be spared the big fires that also occur regularly, but people are wrong.  All the bets are off. Nature is no longer predictable, and puny human efforts to protect themselves, are useless.

 

The warnings we have been hearing from our scientists for decades now are pretty much all the same. Humans emissions of greenhouse gasses are exceeding what nature was designed to deal with, and it doesn’t. We were told that natural disasters, big and small, would be more intense and frequent and they are. The melting of the polar ice caps was predicted, and there is hard evidence that its happening. Anyone with a cell phone can Google and see the satellite pictures. It is visible even in our little hideaway heavenly retreat.

 

I was talking with a famous Crowsnest Pass person whose name I will not reveal without permission. Here is what he said. “I am a Conservative, and I don’t believe in global warming. The amount of carbon that we produce is so small that it makes no difference, and the whole subject is still under debate.” Really? Is this a matter to be decided by our political affiliations or is it a life and death issue. Not life and death for a few unfortunate people in a faraway land, but our children and grandchildren. Our mountain towns barely survived floods and fires in the last few years, and some communities around us were devastated. As a side note, Tesla just installed the biggest Lithium-ion battery in Jamestown Australia, enough to supply 300000 homes, and wind powers it.

 

Natural disasters aside, unfortunately, we have a lot more to fear about, and all are men made problems. The economy is a big concern. I was talking with a 91-year-old economist who believes that our version of Capitalism is like cancer. We created a situation where money is not circulating the way it should.  Not enough ends up in the hands of average consumers who would spend it to keep the economy going. Most of the value of our ever-increasing production is hoarded and used for trading, never seeing the light of day. Looming above the economy wows is the threat of war. We can see what war does every day on the news. It is the first feer people have and justifiably so. Unfortunately, there is not enough room in this little article to discuss it.

 

Fear is a natural response to danger, and a person can't live without it. It is used effectively to control people. We often hear words such us, vote for us and we will deal with your worst fears. The politicians are ignoring real issues, such as Global Warming, and are promising to solve unemployment by providing relatively few temporary jobs in building a new oil pipeline. When it's built, and pumping bitumen to markets, they will find some other project for us to work on. Again there will be little benefit to the public and a lot to the Corporations.

 

I have been researching “happiness” and “fears” for a very long time. There is a  huge amount of material written about it, both religious and secular. The best conclusion I can come up with is “be not afraid.” We have a lot of problems, but we can deal with them if we set our minds up to do so. The main focus should always be on the picture of what we want not on what we fear. It seems as if God lets us use his power to get our dreams, but first, we must have those dreams. It’s a slow, methodical process, but it works. Humans exist in what they choose to think about.

 

I would recommend less attention to the Prime Minister masquerading dressed in Indian costumes for a picture and more attention to the potential millions of tons of carbon which are dumped into the atmosphere, causing fires and floods. I wish that people will see the heaven around them and fight to keep it, instead of destroying it. I wish to think about the resurrection we call Spring while knowing that I have taken steps to deal with the causes of my fears.

The perennial Easter Lesson.

Revised copy.

The perennial Easter Lesson.

 

I was six years old, and in the street of my school, there were more horses than cars. The world looked different than it does today, but the human behavior was the same. There was a bigger kid in the schoolyard, and he was loud and very sure of himself. He was dressed better than most of us and was followed around by a group of boys who obviously mimicked his aggressive behavior.

 

They, the popular group, would go after us, the smaller kids, and show us that they were superior. At times they would physically get into our space and even pushed us asserting their dominance. There was no way to avoid them and no place to hide. Later I learned that I was doing the same towards smaller weaker kids myself, but I don’t like to talk about it. Why would I want to assert my superiority using bully techniques? I don’t know, but I did. I am sorry. It was only years later that I realized I was doing it.

 

Jump forward twenty years, and I was at an Easter church service in Calgary. A story from the Bible was unfolding. Here was a person who preached equality and openly opposed the culture of the “winner takes it all.” He was Yeshua, or Jesus as they prefer to call him here. In a place called Judea then and Israel now, the old established ruling class, consisting of religious leaders and local king, conflicted with the Roman Empire that took over their land and bossed them around. A young Jewish teacher invented what we now call passive resistance and his theory threatened the people in power, both Roman and Hebrew. He taught love instead of selfishness and on the first Easter the rich and powerful executed him. They washed their hands assuming the problem was over but, HE rose again. His movement, named Christianity, was more powerful than the bullies, and it took over. The Hebrews were demolished, the Roman Empire was undone, and Christianity became the most powerful institution in the world.

 

Sixty years after my first day in school, again I am faced with the bullies, this time on the world’s stage. The main power, more powerful by far than the Romans ever were, is called the United States of America and it is backed strongly by the previous Empire, the British Empire, now called Great Britain. Now horses disappeared from the picture, electronics and technology are the main force and the worst weapons can obliterate all life on Earth with a push of a button. People’s nature remains the same. The powerful Empire is shoving and pushing, challenging the smaller nations for domination, with economic superiority being the coveted prize. The President of America is desperately trying to start a war, anywhere, in order to keep himself in power and become richer than he already is. Again the majority is oppressed, and people pray for deliverance.

 

History never stops, and with writing, printing, radio, TV and later the mighty internet, people are aware, on mass, that there are solutions to bullying inflicted by absolute power. Every person, even the least educated, is aware of examples from the past where oppression was fought against and defeated. The Hebrews were freed from Egypt by a God named “I am,” the Christians took over the Roman Empire, and revolutions decimated some of the greatest kingdoms. We now know how the circle of life functions.

 

First comes the natural bully, assisted by followers who wish to share in his plunder, and they never get enough. Next come some self-sacrificing individuals like Moses, Yeshua, Gandhi, or Mandela and wake the masses of people up. The people become none co-operating and later even physically rebellious. The outcome sooner or later is a transfer of power. Historically abusers and bullies enjoy a relatively short time in leading roles but always lose at the end. The taller they are, the harder they fall. It is not a story; it is history. There is no power on earth which can match the will of the people. Humans are made in the image of God and God, in the long run, always proves to be just.

 

Take a step into how we view the future, and you get images such as the most popular series Star Wars.  There is a dark power which takes over the known Universe. It possesses all the resources, the power, and mighty weapons and there is no possible logical deliverance from its strength and organization.  Some oppressed individuals and groups find themselves at a point where they can no longer exist without rebellion, and they are willing to self-sacrifice to gain freedom, which they do. We see it today with all the millions of people participating in protests around the world.

 

People may fly south for the winter, but the cycle of nature remains the same. There is winter turning into spring, summer follows, and onwards it goes. The controlling bullies gain power, and the people take it back. Like the famous professor Pinker teaches, overall humankind is moving forward. Health is improving; life expectancy is getting longer, and people overall are becoming more tolerant of each other and learning how to share the bounty that was given free of charge to all who are simply born.