Marshall and the Medium and the Message

In the early 1960s, McLuhan wrote that the visual, individualistic print culture would soon be brought to an end by what he called “electronic interdependence”: when electronic media replace visual culture with aural/oral culture. In this new age, humankind will move from individualism and fragmentation to a collective identity, with a “tribal base.” McLuhan’s coinage for this new social organization is the global village.

Marshall McLuhan, the one person who saw us now, and this was a very long time ago.

How many times do you turn on the computer to get information, to chat with friends, to connect to the world? About half a century ago, a man figured out that each of us would be using the computer, would be communicating around the world without writing letters, and with using personal computers. He even told those at IBM such things would happen. Yep, half a century ago!

Now we can tune into disasters, humans who have become so warped they seem to be monsters and all the earthquake and hurricane information we could possibly absorb plus more.

What does this do to us? Why are some people hooked on “bad news”, like the deaths of others en mass, the murderers, the carnage of starvation? The human system NEEDS stimulation, and if the person hooked is not getting the stimulation from everyday life, they find it, search it out, and use it to get the stimulation. Weird, not really, just the need to feel something, anything.

 Today there is news of a massive murder in Norway, where people on an island were shot, using the ruse of the uniform of trust, a police officer. As of now, there are tens of people dead, and the country is in shock and mourning over such a “senseless” death, but here, look at the headlines. Hundreds of headlines appear. The more shocking the headline, the faster it is found or searched for. Like the people hooked on some other substance, the news feeds the stimulation, the inner adrenaline. The medium has become the message, the message is the need for stimulation, no matter how gruesome or shocking.

 Again, what does this do to us? What happens to our bodies when we read these headlines? What happens to our sense of security and safety in our daily lives? Think! Every imagined event, every massive hurricane or earthquake raises our adrenaline, raises our thoughts that “that could be me” or “that could have been my family!” and our systems go into overdrive, producing hormones, but there is NO immediate threat, NO immediate danger to us or our body. Think!

 Nightmares are often dramas played out for us, to find solutions, to live through events without the immediate and real danger or damage. But, we wake UP, we look around, we reassure ourselves “Oh, that was just a dream!” Wheew! But, have you ever noticed how your body is reacting? Heart rate may be high, or very high, and breathing is rapid and shallow, much like the reaction of a REAL event.

 When we constantly repeat false dramas, repeat false dangers, and put our body through stress over and over again, we are draining our system of the health, the ability to recover, the inner harmony. We often get sick.

What happens if you or I change that stimulation? Instead of using death and disaster we use our natural connections? Storms do have the necessary drama, but I would rather NOT go out the door and deliberately contend with a very nasty storm. Too much stimulation for this lazy person. I do love to be near thunder storms, wind storms, and even hail if I know I am safely tucked inside a house or building. I prefer to go for a walk, move my whole mind and body through the air, the water, the grass and hear all the birds. Not quite as dramatic, but certainly far more of my sort of stimulation.

My own personal favourites for television drama are those that involve solving problems, often nasty ones I admit, like CSI, Bones, and all those icky and dramatic forensic situations. Start the hour with a crime, go through the personalities, the failure to connect morality and any possible spiritual teachings with a very nasty crime, then move on to solve it all. The theme is hope, stubborn determination to find the answer, and above all the morality of the team or person who finally gets to the solutions. Satisfactory answers appear and the “bad guy” is put away, nice and tidy.

 Life is NOT like that, we don’t get the short show to work out all our answers, and sometimes the answers will only appear after we have learned what NOT to do, rather than any startling illumination within our psyche or our dreamed adventures.

 I know the difference between the images on the television screen and real life, and I know that screaming at the image on the screen will not change the plot one tiny bit. If I choose to invest my own emotions then I will jump, scream, cringe, or otherwise react, then probably laugh at myself for being “taken in”.

 Animals are NOT quite as stupid as I am. They do have the ability to learn, mostly proven by all of use who have taught them to “speak”, fetch or do other tricks, and what is forgotten is that any being, including animals, need the ability to use imagination before any learning can happen at all!

 Ah, here is the crux of the whole thing. Some people will stretch their imagination so far, so often into the horrendous, that they concentrate on the “dangers” of even such simple things as walking into their own homes!! Those who get hooked on the news, the death and disaster are TEACHING themselves, using imagination. “The world is NOT safe for me!” “The kids now are dangerous, I have to guard against being near them!” “The police are corrupt!” “The government has lost any semblance of real democracy or governing, except for those who pull the strings in this country!”

Short version? That person has totally lost the inner peace and sense of security they need to walk in the house, to talk to the kids next door, and to call the police when they see someone in trouble. That person is now living in a world of fear, literally, a living nightmare. Their world is now a very vulnerable, hazardous and dangerous place with nowhere to turn to “solve the problem”. A nightmare in the real world, but still just a nightmare. Think! What do most of us do when we wake up from a nightmare? Think! Better yet, USE your imagination! Learn! Come on, you can see the solution and it takes less than an hour to find it.

One elegant solution is obvious to me, turn off the damn television or, at the very least, avoid all new channels, cut the dependency! Then turn off the computer and go out, deal with the reality that maybe, just maybe, those very kids next door may just be the ones to find a good solution to a problem that has existed for years in your own neighbourhood! I go out and look around, see the trees around me, see the people who have planted flowers in their yards and listen to all the crows cawing joyously away. Such drama, but such beautiful drama of life and death when the frost and cold comes.

 The medium, the internet, the television channels, the games of death and destruction, the communication by advertisements of the daily onslaught to your health, your safety, your personal well-being all use imagination within US to create falsehoods. How many times does it take before you or I learn that same nightmare of fear?

 I get caught up in the drama. I fully admit that. I get emotionally involved watching dramas unfold when animals or children are either threatened or killed, I also admit that. Then, I turn off the news, shut off the computer and take a walk. I wake UP!

I do play online games, but I refuse to play those that kill or maim. Phooey! I am not going to use my imagination to get into that world of death and destruction on a personal basis. It is no mistake that people in armies use these games to create a sort of mental numbness to the killing of real people. Phooey!

 We live in a reality that has become so much “unreality” that we have forgotten how to wake up, how to take that walk and how to turn off the “unreality” and it has become a reality for far too many.

Food and Passive Resistance to Bylaws

Something totally different here, away from the major stories and down to survival.

I saw that some places, cities, villages, towns, have problems with people turning the front yards into gardens. What?? The cost of food has gone up, will continue to go up, and people need to find a way to eat. So, I thought on this for a while, then figured out a very old, very easy solution to bypassing those bylaws.

Years ago I joined someone in making raised gardens, and we put those in the front yard. The neighbours had not qualms with this, in fact they liked the way we designed the layout. We grew more vegetables per square foot than we could in any ground level garden, and the pests were less, our backs did not ache, and we actually enjoyed the work! Wow, what a concept!

 So, here I sit, looking at the weird and wonderful bylaws of some places and wonder, would this work in cities that seem to think only lawns, trees and bushes belong in the front yards?  The raised gardens should be one way to get this done, and still get some food on the table without fines or hassles from some overly zealous bylaw officer.

The process is simple, so here is what I did. First year we just dug up the plots, put in some good soil, and had that soil above the level of the grass. Well, it worked, but it was not quite the labour saving we wanted. So, we scavenged some lumber, put that into long boxes, and then put those boxes over the raised beds. We went a bit extravagant with adding in some black ground cover to keep the weeding down, but basically we did it on the cheap.

That allowed use to grow peppers, tomatoes, even potatoes without having to put so much space between plants. So far, so good, but I still had a back ache from bending over to weed. Hmmm ok, add in more soil, and add in some of the kitchen scraps (no meat or bones here, just veggie waste) and the next year we had a bonanza!

Back to the bylaws. I read the article and it said that gardens that took up the space of the front yard got some people fines. Hmmm well, ok, if the city or town had a problem with the lack of a “lawn” then perhaps this would be a way to work with the bylaw and still eat! Yes, it should work, but there is the question of esthetic, which appears to be the root of the complaint. Staining the wood would work, so would putting a decoration on the wood using some stencils, paint or other means. Better yet, ask the neighbours if the design is attractive. A bit of a risk, but less annoying than having to take all the boxes down mid-season.

Maybe make sure you put in some nice flowers, such as nasturtiums, marigolds (which, by the way, keep some bugs away) and perhaps add in some geraniums, just to “justify” these as gardening and enhancing the appearance.

What is the problem here in the first place?? It seems that city dwelling is meant to be such that you must buy all your food, must buy all your necessities and must keep the city looking as sterile and neat as the parking lots. Don’t, for any reason, use land for what it has been used for centuries, to raise food, to eat from! The only people allowed to do that are outside the city, the farmer, the orchard grower. So, plant an apple tree, edible chestnut, almond, orange (if you live where they actually can grow) or even the lowly cherry and make the yard more “esthetic”. The bonus you get? Your house will be cooler in summer, the winds won’t slow down when they go through, and the moisture will actually stay around for a while. Plus, the city will be happy to see the blossoms.

 Food prices are rising, they will continue to rise, and anything you or I can do to make this easier on our own pocketbooks, our own families, our own cities, must be a good thing…. or maybe just a passive way to resist those antiquarian bylaws meant to impose collective boring sameness on all of us, we MUST conform…..

Journalist or Gossip Monger?

Yeah, I know, most people know a bit about the whole mess that the Murdoch paper and the press in the U.K. got into. Yes, I know there are actually tutorials on how to “hack” into cell phones and get the messages. Yes, I know, there are some people who DO have ethics and used those to get the story.
What is amazing to me is the thirst in the public for stupidity. Who cares if someone has been seen wearing a bikini on a beach? Who cares if someone is seen drinking at a bar? I don’t really give a damn if anyone is doing either of these.
Now, when it comes to things like using false identity to get into financial information, which is not my business, nor anyone else’s, or the health situation of a young child, or the family of someone who is desperate to find a child, a spouse, an elder, or anyone that is a friend, then there is trouble, big, ugly trouble. THAT is NOT journalism. That is abusing a lot of the information most GOOD journalists use honestly to get beyond honesty, integrity and go totally sleaze. Yes, there are some in high places that abuse their influence, and some very good journalists have found those out, but now it seems that even the “yellow” or gossip journalists find they have to go way down to beyond the gutter to make a pound, dollar, yen and survive.
Why should I even care about any of this? I am certainly less than famous, I am certainly not one of the so-called “elite”, nor am I even in the field of entertainment. So, why care?
I have a family, and if any of my own family is harmed, then I am going to try to communicate with them, in the desperate hope I can change the outcome. I WANT to see those family members again, alive, without any harm. When I see a so-called journalist cutting into the messages, cutting into the grief, cutting me and my family while making money off that, then I am going to see this for what it really is, a human hyena feeding off death.
The irony is that it was a journalist and his editor that got the facts, got near the bottom of this mess, and exposed this pack of filth. Is this the end? Not by a very very LONG shot. When the journalist, who had a strong and equally determined editor at his back, published the first in the series of stories, the Murdoch organization attacked, ferociously! Lies piled on lies and more attacks from not just one paper but every single damn paper and television organization that Murdoch was part of. Gang bullying! This is continuing now, even as I put pixels on a screen. More lies. Rupert Murdoch DID know about this, sanctioned a huge payment to the person wronged and then lied again to the British Parliamentary inquiry. So did his son.
I watched the inquiry and was astounded to see Rupert Murdoch say he was proud of his own father for “revealing” a scandal. Wonder if he is proud to be the center of just such a revelation himself? What is the astounding part is that Rupert Murdoch was proud of having an empire that was the bottom feeder and used illegal and obscene methods to get to some things that only caused others torching, searing, soul-scarring pain, and then comes forward to say he is “humbled”? Give me a break!
There is another place that I would put a bet on for using “cell phone cutting” and is nothing more than a bottom feeder itself, and that place is owned by Time Warner. Scandal! Oh wow! Divorces! Oh wow! “She said this!!” and all on American television. Who really gives a damn whether someone is getting into a really nasty contest in a divorce? Those people obviously have not been able to deal with emotional maturity for a while, so why get paid to exploit this?
Well, the fault lines are coming to life. Human beings, who have the emotional maturity of a two year old child love to snicker, grin, read all about other lives and feel somehow “better” because the situations are not happening in the lives of the readers. Yes, the hyenas are feeding YOU, and you are gullible enough to think this has some truth to it.
ENOUGH!!!
Good journalism gives us a picture of our world, with facts that ARE verified, images that ARE real, not doctored, not “enhanced with airbrushing” and often turn our stomachs with the real pain. Good journalism gets stubborn, gets determined, gets the story, BUT without manufacturing information, creating falsehoods and without causing someone to question all journalists. There are some television networks that have long ceased to be truthful, ethical, and they show it. Opinion is the means to “verify” as opposed to doing the actual work to find facts, to work, really work to get the story right.
We now live in a world that is losing sight of what it means to be human, to live up to the best in ourselves, to be honest, not only with others, but with ourselves. We don’t expect others to behave ethically or even morally, but to be the worst!
ENOUGH!!
Hackers are not those who “intercept or cut into phone cell messages”, they are people who have more excuses than pairs of socks. Hackers want to “change the world” but do it by causing harm, being obnoxious and using their knowledge to create problems for others.
ENOUGH!
I will NOT revere or honour anyone who uses “yellow journalism”, hacking or other means to become “famous for fifteen minutes”! But, I will honour that man who persevered despite the spiteful attacks by the entire Murdoch chain, the bullying of all those papers and television stations, and kept going to get the facts, get the entire picture to that date, and then put out that story, knowing all hell would break loose.
When I see the television show from Time Warner about to start on my own small television, I shut my television off or I find a channel where the truth actually appears, with facts and honest journalism used. I do NOT want any hyena food here, nor do I even want to be near such stinking, rotting, fecal matter in my life, online or otherwise.

Contagion, Disasters, Debt and Suicidal Politics

There is a huge amount of nattering about the international debt situation, from the problems in Greece to the raising of the ceiling in the U.S. debt limits. What I find interesting is this: there is an assumption that the banks, the lenders all have the ultimate sway over the political decisions. Now, normally most people have to live with bills, and most people realize they are paying those same bills to cover services or goods. We all shrug and accept this as “normal” in daily living.

Admitting that you or I have gone nuts with money, debt and then face the idea that not only are our bills out of our control, but our lives depend on the good graces of some money lender, bank or otherwise, can bring up some pretty harsh anger. Losing control over our own lives is one thing we just do not want at any price, period.  BUT, we shrug, admit we were not all that wise and get our anger under some control, then attempt to pay what we can afford.

Now, when we find out that the lenders are using shady lending, and banking institutions like Wells Fargo are fined, then we increase our anger. Some may just fall into a despair and feeling of hopelessness. This will compound our problems in ways most of us don’t realize.

Illness comes along and most just say “I am sick, and tired, and feel as though my body is being attacked by some virus”, which is literally true, to a point. Those who get sick are feeling sick and tired, of the way their lives have gone, of the way the world around them is treating them, and their bodies are acting completely in accordance. When despair replaces our joy, when feelings of powerlessness replace our feelings of accomplishment, when our own inner sense of true self worth becomes a sense of hopelessness and utter helplessness, we are “sick and tired”. This illness, no matter how temporary or long-term is meant to teach us to find our own power ” OUR ability to act effectively in the moment”.

Am I nuts here talking about the international debt and illness in one post? NO.

Think about it. The worry, the stress, the “giving up” of the nations is not all that much different than our own personal “giving up”, shrugging and acceptance of our inability to DO SOMETHING. We all live in a town, a city, a political area, and we all are living in the world as it exists now. When our town mayor, our city mayor, our regional representative, anyone who is representing our area, our interests goes out, we expect them to reflect our lives, our desires for a better life, better town, better country. We choose to have them go out for us.

Fanatics, no matter whether they are one single person in a village or a person who is elected in any form, is going to be one person who will do what they “see as the right thing to do” regardless of ANY consequences. There are now some who are elected to office what will take the “contagion” of debt to the extremes and will do anything to tackle that, regardless of whose lives are “afflicted” as long as the money and the lenders are pleased. When fanatics gain sway, they bring with them the ideas of “powerless people”, of “the means will always justify the ends, regardless of suffering imposed on others” and that thinking moves far faster than any virus, any mosquito, any animal ever could and will infect very quickly.

You may have thousands in debt, and you can choose to be the fanatic, force children into prostitution, for example, to pay the bills, and you may justify this as them being a part of the family that “needs to pull it’s weight”. Few of us would agree. Or, you may choose to try to find a second job, putting your own energy into attempting to solve this problem. Some of us would see that as a good action.

There are some who just give up, abandon the house, car, whatever item is carrying that debt and walk away, begin anew. “Let the bank deal with this!!” Many have done just that. BUT, the world leaders cannot just walk off, and let the “bank deal with this” unless the people are willing to allow the lenders to be the ones running the financial and social well-being of the entire country. There are two ways the people can respond, or act effectively. One way is by saying “we can and will deal with this” and find ways to do that, without  causing others to suffer, or by causing a lot of others to suffer. The idealist or the fanatic.

The fanatic lives, thrives and loves fear, they use it to make others cower, to make others bend to the ideas of the fanatic. The idealist is the one who demands the BEST from the people, the one who believes in the healthy and caring people who chose the idealist to lead them, not by demand perhaps, but by example.

Confused yet?

Illness is a TEACHING tool, used by our inner selves, our bodies to say “HEY, there is something YOU need to change!” Pay attention. Living in fear is probably the worst way to go, because we are then projecting failure, disappointment, misery and above all a sense of helplessness that literally starves our bodies and our selves of the daily vitality.  Living in despair is choosing to live on the road to serious illness. When countries fall into the fear, despair, and hopelessness trap, then that country is facing much more than just financial disaster, it is becoming ripe for mass illnesses. Disasters are part of the same learning process as bodily illness is, there is something that needs to be changed!!

Countries, cities, towns, villages, and families are all OUR context for our lives, so why is it that some people who are living in the middle of a mass illness NEVER get sick? Why are there villages, towns, cities, even countries that don’t have huge debts? Why do some people have absolutely no illness even without any inoculations or constant washing of hands?  All of these are good questions for everyone to think about. Are these people and places somehow far more “blessed”, wise, above the common?

No, they all had problems, they all were much the same as everyone else, except for on vital thing. THEY believed in themselves, in the ability they had to deal with their lives without causing others any pain, but with the idea that they could act effectively. Those people who seemed untouched by the Black Plague (which killed MILLIONS) the mass epidemics that are war, the mass effect of fanatics (the survivors of unspeakable misery) all had one thing in common. They did NOT follow in the mind set of misery, powerlessness, hopelessness, despair and fear. They adjusted, they learned, they used their own small lives and their own ability to be active! If one thing did not work out well, they did NOT think they failed, they moved their own belief into another way of doing things, of thinking about their lives and then tried that. They acted on the inner sense of self-worth and the inner sense of power to change their lives, which in turn, changed others.

Now, back to the larger world. A country is much like a personality, with it’s own beliefs and abilities. When troubles come, as they always MUST, then the country can respond by abdicating the ability to act effectively, or it can draw on the idea that this is a lesson that MUST be learned. A kind of illness or affliction. IF the fanatics are “running the country” , then the solutions are going to be ones that CAUSE pain and suffering, the means are “justified” and all the suffering is “for the greater good”. IF the sickness is financial in nature, then money MUST be taken and from ANY PLACE, except those who have the money. The wealthy are regarded as those who are NOT the failure, not the cause of the sickness, but those who have succeeded and must be revered for doing so. The poor, the impoverished, the ones who have huge debts are the ones who, according the belief of the fanatics, are failures and must, accordingly, pay the price. The idea is that the people who HAVE money, the wealthy, are doing something right! Wealth is regarded as success, debt now becomes “failure”. Remember, this is the view of the fanatic.

IF, however, there are leaders who are NOT infected with fear, who believe in the ability of everyone to ACT EFFECTIVELY in the moment, then there is a huge difference in the way the country will behave. Leaders REFLECT the beliefs of the people, and when those leaders are not infected with fear, hopelessness, failure, powerlessness, hopelessness, and are reflecting that back to the country, then there is a HUGE difference in how the country deals with the debt, the sickness. Such a leader will find ways to bring out the best, the most innovative, the ability to LEARN and change behaviour. Obviously, most people are not of these extremes, but somewhere in the middle, like most of us. There are some who would be “suicidal politicians” who DEMAND that the country NOT increase the debt, but put misery and pain onto the country “in the cause of financial good”, justifying that demand using any means. Those politicians will demand that there be NO change in fiscal taxation, no change in the status of the wealthy, no change in the way those who are “successful” are treated, and demand that others who are seen to be “financial failures” are the ones that face this sickness alone. Those “suicidal politicians” have NO intent to be elected again, but to impose a solution on the country according to a “promise” that MUST bind all who made that promise, regardless of the outcome.

Here is where the idea of contagion works it’s worst. The fear, the demands, the fanatical ideas can create a HUGE amount of hopelessness, powerlessness, and eventually a mass “illness” appears. It can appear as rioting, it can appear as natural disasters, it can appear as an epidemic, it can appear as a war, but IT WILL APPEAR! The natural zest we all have to MAKE A BETTER WORLD is the best and  healthiest zest for living we have. What can I do? What can you do? Find ways to keep ourselves out of the mind and contagion of despair, hopelessness, and live  and act with our own desire to be the best we can be, to change what does not work well for us, to use our own creative selves and above all, to love, respect and believe in ourselves as good, decent and caring people. . When trouble comes, then you and I need to stay out of the mind set of despair, fall into the idea that sickness must befall us, and to become the ones who act, who believe we can and will deal with this, without falling into the pit of hopelessness, despair or act as if we don’t have any thing we can do.

Are the banks at fault? According to the fanatic, no. Are the lenders the “victim” here? According to the fanatic, yes. Strange way of seeing things, but there are lessons to learn and one of them may just be that the money world is one of “making a profit, at any cost, by any means” which may just be part of the things we all need to learn. Or the lesson may be that the Quality of our lives, the peace and growth of each of us, does not depend on how much money we have, or don’t have, but on whether we are able to live with a sense of purpose, a sense of  worth, a sense of our own value as people, actors and those who can act without fear.

Tax Experts I Want To Meet

 

I have been watching, with some interest, the way some people view the tax situation in the U.S. and how to deal with it.

I want to meet the fiscal financial experts the Republicans are using for advice! If they can do for me what they tell the GOP they can do for the government, I want in!

I am very interested to know how you reduce the income of the government by keeping taxes low for the very wealthy, such as Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, Dick Cheney, and a very select few others, and still find the money to pay off the national deficit.Very interested indeed if those same tax specialists can also show how this can be done with no tax increase on anyone else too. Totally amazing!

To put this is simpler terms, I will use an ordinary person.

Jack is paid $1000 per month, his taxes are, say, $200, so his take-home pay is $800. Now, the GOP have found a way to pay Jack less, $950, and take less tax, $180, and somehow Jack is supposed to be able to pay his debt bill of $1000 without any problem. I want in! Earn less, pay less tax, and pay off your long-term debt with more money! Yeah! Introduce me to those specialists any place, any time!

So, the GOP want all this hinged on tax breaks for the wealthy, and those hinges are things like giving the people who RAN to a disaster called 9/11, risked THEIR lives, and now face some very nasty health problems, plus, the people who lost all those jobs when the economy went downhill faster than any Olympic skier will have to wait until the rich get a tax break. Those are enormously expensive and very nasty hinges! The unemployed will find their payments held hostage to Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, and all those CEO’s of banks, corporations and other wealthy patrons.

Now, one point here, those very wealthy people do have tax specialists, so the tax write-offs, the means to pay less every year for each dollar of income is much less than I pay. Yes, they already have means to pay less, even if they would be paying the tax without the breaks. I have one family member who makes around 7 times what a senior in my family makes, and the senior is paying her taxes quarterly, while the other member is paying close to zero because of the write-offs. This is common as the grass on the prairies.

The reasoning is making me wonder where I managed to miss something. UNLESS the wealthy get a temporary or even permanent tax break, then those who are literally suffering cannot get anything to help them out.

As for the taxes themselves, the math here is very, VERY interesting.

The country is like any household, it needs money to pay bills. So, the country collects taxes to do that. What I see the GOP advice saying is this. Reduce the income of the government (the national household), make sure the wealthy, plus make sure seniors who need the money, people who are unemployed with children at home, and all those young men and women just out of college or university who have tuition bills wait until the income to the government is reduced. Now, I have lived a while, so I know that when my income gets reduced, I cannot pay bills that are on the increase.

Apparently the GOP have found a way to do just that! Reduce the taxes, which in turn reduces the income, and somehow pay off the deficit bills which are rising. Yes! I want to meet those people who have figure out how to do that! You betcha!

People do NOT die “from diseases”

I know everyone has seen the advertisements, the drives for funds, the constant barrage of medications, and the incessant vigilance required to enjoy a healthy life.

One huge problem with this. People do NOT die from disease. People die when they are ready to die, and if they are dealing with a disease, that is used to get to the door of death with a reason, a way to go.

There is no way to stop people from dying, whether from accidents, disease or just old age. When I see advertisements that try to say that this or that medication will stop people from dying, I get annoyed, to say the very least. There is NO immortality pill, and there is a very good reason for dying.

“Saving lives” with some treatment is a pure fallacy, it will not happen. I know quite well I will die, and actually I do look forward to going. It will mean that I have chosen to leave, that I have decided there is really not much left here for me to do.

Dying is a biological necessity.

Dying is a spiritual and psychological necessity, for after a while the exuberant, ever-renewed energies of the spirit can no longer be translated into flesh…The self outgrows the flesh.

It is not understood that before life an individual decides to live. A self is not simply the accidental personification of the body’s biological mechanism. Each person born desires to be born.I am not speaking here of the desire for suicide, which involves a definite killing of the body by self-deliberate means often of a violent nature. Ideally this desire for death, however, would simply involve the slowing of the body’s processes, the gradual disentanglement of psyche from flesh; or in other instances, according to individual characteristics, a sudden, natural stopping of the body’s processes. Left alone, the self and the body are so entwined that the separation would be smooth. The body would automatically follow the wishes of the inner self. In the case of suicide, for example, the self is to some extent acting out of context with the body, which still has its own will to live. I will have more to say about suicide, but I do not mean here to imply guilt on the part of a person who takes his or her own life. In many cases, a more natural death would have ensued in any event as the result of diseases.

Suicide is usually a result of that person becoming so mentally boxed in, so enclosed in hopelessness and helplessness that they are looking for a way to get out of that box, out of that very limited world they have created.

Disease is actually a healing mechanism. We get coughs, colds, and we are told, or tell ourselves, “go to bed and rest”. We use disease to boost the healthy response to infections that otherwise may be deadly. H1N1 is probably one of the most recent examples. I did get it, was ill, and now I am fully aware that my body is now immune.

Even such things as cancer and other “diseases” (literally a dis-ease) within the body is a means to get our attention, to make us look at what we are doing and to figure out why this is happening.  Many events will do the same thing without affecting our bodies, but I have seen that highly emotional events are very often followed by such things as a cold or flu.

We live in such a demanding society that if we just said, “I need time to myself, to think and figure out things”, we are frowned on, scoffed at for being lazy,  and denied the healing we need. So, we get a cold, the flu, whatever, and then we are told to stay home, to stay away from others, to rest.

How much smarter would it be to just realize that time taken to reconsider, to think and change our own way of doing things, would be much easier if we DID listen to our bodies?

Someone I know died a few years ago, and the way they went caused me to seriously think about why people choose certain diseases, certain ways of enduring events that horrified me. It took me a long time to realize some of the reasons, but the deepest reasons went with that person when they died.

Most people fear dying, death, or anything connected with it. I am not one of those, perhaps because I know that dying does NOT mean the end of me, my personality, but the stoppage of the functioning of my body. I live on, and so does every person I know whose life has ended.

If there were no death, you would have to invent it — for the context of that selfhood would be as limited as the experience of a great sculptor given but one hunk of stone. There must be more to our selves than just one shot at a life, then some long-term stasis in limbo waiting for one event or another. We see the seasons, we know that each autumn the leaves will fall, die, and become part of the renewal of spring, yet we tend to deny ourselves the question that resides in that process. What happens to us after we die? Do we move on to a new spring, where we are once again part of the earth?

I am not even going to try to give answers for these questions. Each person MUST ask them for themselves.

Please do NOT tell me that “cancer can be beaten” or that by some medication I will find immortality. That is just a lie, a very vicious deception.When I see these advertisements, they tell me how desperate people are for hope, even a very false hope, that the ones they love will not die from disease.   We all die and there are many very good reasons to die.

I may be immortal as a personality, but my body is not me, and it will cease to function.

Surrey BC City Hall is Biased and Practices Discrimination

I have seen many things over time,but this must show up probably the worst behaviour regarding By-Law Enforcement and Building Permissions.

If you are from anywhere that is not India, especially the Punjab, you may find that the By-Law officers will show up at your home within a few days of receiving any type of complaint, but if you are Sikh and have taken out main bearing walls, changed the wiring, messed with the natural gas service, and all done without any permission or permit,then you may find you are home free, literally. There seems to be a standing practice in the Building Inspection or Permit offices of delaying all inspections, checking out any and all complaints until after the By-Law violations are hidden behind drywall and then you need not worry at all!

In fact, I know of one house that was standing, was likely painted with lead paint, and also possibly had asbestos within it, and while they were tearing away at this house, I called City Hall, spoke to the building inspections office and they took the information. I have yet, after 3 FULL MONTHS to see any notice, anything done, and that house is now gone. The debris went somewhere, and if there was any hazardous material with it,then someone may never know how they became exposed to that hazard.

There were several other houses,all owned by Sikh owners that were “remodelled” without any permits, and when I spoke to the permit office, and the by-law office, I was told “the inspectors are busy”, too busy it seems except when another home owned by a man who is a long time resident of Surrey, but not Sikh, was inspected within days of a complaint.

I am NOT alone in noting this either. The general view here is that the Indo-Canadian community is able to do pretty much anything they want, and the law has no binding on them. They have persisted in making sure that their interests are guarded, often flouting laws regarding buildings, health regulations, tenant law, and basically most others. including criminal law.

Recently most of the criminals either charged or sought by the police are from the Indo-Canadian community, and with the recent Bank of Montreal fraud scam there is the view that this community has no reason to abide by any laws, even federal ones.

Even contract law is now flouted according to most of the building and other trades. The people in the Sikh community agree to a given price for work, then they renege on full payment, even going as far as building a home in Whistler, moving in,then declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying for the house at all!

I know several trades owners, plumbers, drywall, plasterers, electricians, carpenters and even those who do the fine finishing such as flooring, cabinetry, will refuse to work with anyone of the Sikh community unless the money is paid at least 50% up front. They all have been stung too often with partial payment.

I think it is high time Surrey City Hall took the time to really look at the practices within their own walls and to find out exactly why the Sikh community flouts the laws and rarely faces any fines or other penalties. The houses they “remodel” are health hazards, fire hazards and certainly hazardous to live in given that the entire structure has been altered, especially after the work has been done without any inspections. Gas lines are NOT something to play with, but these houses then get sold to some unwitting person who finds out that the main bearing wall is gone, the structure MUST be restored and the costs then pass on to the new owner.

IF you are looking to buy any house in Surrey, get at least 2 trades who are professional, to look at the house, check the wiring, check the structure, check the plumbing and gas lines especially. Obviously the City of Surrey has NOT done so.

If you are buying any property, even a townhouse or condo here, check to see if there have ever been any permits issued, or stop work orders. I know of at least one house that was “remodelled” WHILE a stop work order was in effect on that house. There was even a contractor on that premises and NO PERMIT!

All of these houses were owned by Sikh owners, and I gather they get a free pass from City Hall and any inspections because they are “influential” in this city. How do I know who owned them? Simple, they were wearing the turbans and clothing of the Sikh. All those working, with one exception, were wearing the same things, without any hard hats, steel toe boots, or any other safety gear.

Here I thought I lived in Canada, where the rule and abidance of law was part of our way of living. Apparently those who have come here have decided they don’t have to abide by laws that may inconvenience them or cost them time when making money.

Olympic Hangovers

Yes, I am proud of every single athlete that came to Vancouver and tried their best. Yes, I am proud of the way the area embraced the world and behaved with politeness, even in the midst of the chaos of huge crowds and lineups. BUT, there is a huge hangover we are facing.

People who live here are well aware of the already high costs living here. The real estate board is crowing about all the condo’s and other housing they sold to visitors. Landlords here tossed tenants out under questionable reasoning to get into the shortage of rooms and accommodation. Prices were raised to utterly ridiculous prices for things like coffee ($6 a cup??? ) and the medal ceremonies even charged for those to come to see the athletes get the medals, with perhaps the exception of the ones in Whistler.

Vancouver was already at the top of the pile when it comes to buying even a 700 Sq. foot “mini” condo, and the number of homeless people all over this area had doubled almost every year since the bid was awarded.

Yes, there is a hangover…. a bad one. The contractor for the Athlete Village went into bankruptcy, so the City of Vancouver was basically forced to take on that construction mid-stream, and, of course, the costs skyrocketed. After all, contractors and their sub-contractors know a good pot of gold when they see one.

The organizers got the games on the proviso that “affordable housing” be part of the contract. Well….. it seems that contract is seen as “non-binding” now.

Here is part of that very contract:

“We have an obligation to provide short-term athlete housing as well as a mandate to ensure there are meaningful social, environmental and economic legacies from the 2010 Winter Games,” said John Furlong, chief executive officer, VANOC. “We are pleased to be part of this solution to provide permanent Olympic Legacy Affordable Housing as soon as possible after the close of the 2010 Winter Games.”

Under this MOU, VANOC will design and construct the 320 temporary modular housing units for use in Whistler, which are in addition to the 100-unit lodge and 20-unit townhomes that will be permanent housing units at the Whistler Athletes Centre in the Olympic and Paralympic Village. The Province will then pay for the design, relocation, site work, and modifications of these temporary modular units into legacy housing in the six communities.

The modular units will be used by VANOC during the Games then relocated to the six communities across B.C. and reconfigured to include a kitchen and bathroom in each unit.

Modular Units are trailers! They are NOT houses, they are not even apartments, and the cities in the lower mainland and BC are “providing” land (value, not specified land) to place these trailers in their cities.

NOTE: this is a Memmoradum of Agreement!

The athlete’s village was supposed to become a part of this scheme, but………..the units cost too much now.

From the local paper:

There’s more bad news for the beleaguered athletes village under construction for the 2010 Winter Games.

A report prepared by city staff and sent to the mayor and council says the costs of the affordable, or social, housing component of the massive athletes village is over budget by as much as $77 million.

“In order to achieve the full 100 per cent core-need subsidy, a further $77 million would be the additional required investment by the city,” says the report that was to be debated by council this week during its regular meeting.

In the initial agreement with the Vancouver Olympic Committee, the city received $30 million from VANOC and planned to have 252 units in the village after the Olympics devoted to social housing.

Council in 2006 projected spending $65 million for the affordable housing. A year later, council approved an interim increase to $95 million.

“Current estimates . . . project that anywhere from $56 million to $77 million in additional city equity would be required to sustain affordable housing in the Olympic Village project.”

In a series of 6-5 votes, the NPA strong-armed Vancouver City Council into approving a misleading report drafted in the office of Housing Minister Rich Coleman and approved by the organizers of the 2010 games (VANOC). The report, awkwardly titled the Joint Partner Response to the Inner-City Inclusive Commitments (ICI) Housing Table Report, asserts that the housing recommendations developed for VANOC are “not binding.”

Yeah…. this is something to be really proud of…. NOT!

UN’s harsh view of Vancouver

Any doubt that the world is watching was erased by a top-of-page-one headline in Thursday’s The Vancouver Sun, which declared “Vancouver a scarred paradise.” The Sun report described Vancouver as “a city with staggering wealth and soul-crushing poverty.” The article cited a report by the United Nations Population Fund stating that the Downtown Eastside “is home to a hepatitis C (HCV) rate of just below 70 per cent and an HIV prevalence rate of an estimated 30 per cent — the same as Botswana’s.”

Now to February and this is what one reported said:

Social housing at Olympic Village to cost $595,000 per unit

By Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun columnist February 22, 2009

Where’s bankruptcy court? I want to get in line.

Not because I’m actually going broke. I’m just thinking it might be a way to move closer to Vancouver’s downtown waterfront.

Yes, I’m musing about getting on the Olympic Athletes’ Village social housing list. It’s quite the deal.

A few days ago, I had a tour of the $1-billion Olympic village. Sadly, I’ll never afford the $6-million penthouses. But the City of Vancouver’s brain trust has managed to build us some of the slickest social housing on the planet.

As you may have heard, Vancouver’s taxpayers now face a $110-million bill for 252 units of “affordable housing.” That’s $77 million over budget — or about $436,000 a unit.

But it’s more, really. Add in the approximately $40 million in free city land and you can pretty much count on Olympic social housing costing $595,000 apiece, or about $540 a square foot. That’s at least double normal cost.

Here’s some more sobering math: Assuming the cost of Olympic social housing is $150 million ($110 million in construction plus $40 million in land), each unit would have to rent out at $3,200 a month to pay out that 30-year mortgage. Clearly that’s unsustainable when social housing’s monthly rents are measured in the hundreds of dollars.”

Back to the hangover.

Here are some reality facts. Mimimum wages here are $8.50 per hour, so given even a full-time job, trying to rent out these units to lower income people is foolish. The other choice is to raise already high property taxes to cover the difference. There is one problem with that!  Actually 77 MILLION problems with that.

The City of Vancouver is already shutting down schools, demanding the school system find some way to cut further into an already bare cupboard budget, and the costs of the facilities built by the City are yet to be paid for!

The City of Surrey, which would supposedly get some of these “affordable” trailers is also facing a financial crunch because the high-flying developers who were going to “change the neighbourhoods” where those who could have some kind of affordable housing have gone bankrupt. Ooops!  Tax dollars that the City of Surrey were banking on (foolishly) are not going to be there! Where is this land that these trailers are supposed to be place on? Something tells me that land is now up for sale to the highest bidder.

Here is a kicker that even I did not expect!

The City of Surrey is now targeting landlords who provide low income tenants with inspections and by-law officers. There are huge number of people here who built “ego houses”, over-sized places they could not afford without having ILLEGAL suites in them. These same people have rented “rooms” to those desperate to have even a paltry bit of space for up to $700 per month. NO kitchen privileges, no parking, no smoke detectors, and a huge list of things those tenants are NOT allowed. These “apartments” are often built without any permits, and against the building permit for the houses themselves. Virtually all these houses are designated as SINGLE FAMILY ONLY! Yet, there are up to 4 units rented.

The City of Burnaby has much the same problem, with landlords renting out several houses without any health inspections, and often the upper portions are rented separately from the basements. According to Burnaby by-law, anyone owning more than one property for rent (other than their own personal home) MUST have a license, but I have yet to see this enforced, while those landlords are making millions from renting out places infested with rats, often without proper heat control.

Every single city in the lower mainland has a homelessness problem, and from the statistics I have seen, the homeless are often now families who just cannot afford to live here. Yes, both parents have jobs, but those jobs are not professional, so the pay is low. Shelters for families are turning more people away every month than they shelter!

Since the city bid for the Olympics in 2002, homelessness has increased 373 percent.

That is in Vancouver alone! Surrey’s figures are higher, Langley has seen a huge increase and that city is a small one!

A 2007 report by the Pivot Legal Society,(Vancouver) a local nonprofit advocacy group, said the 2010 games increased homelessness while decreasing the number of affordable housing units through gentrification and evictions.

The report found housing speculation caused increases in property values as developers purchased properties in Downtown Eastside. Developers then renovated the properties and increased rents, thereby displacing residents; in other cases, landlords simply evicted tenants in preparation for a sale.

Oh yeah, the realtors are a very happy bunch! They, along with the developers are making millions, while tossing families and the working poor out!

The same thing happened in Surrey, Burnaby, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Langley (where affordable housing was discouraged all along), New Westminster, North Vancouver, and as far as Abbotsford. Landlords put hundreds, if not thousands, out in the cold so they could profit from the Olympics and the sale of property to those who really want to live here and are rich.

The lumber industry is basically shot, so jobs in that industry will likely NEVER return. Farming is becoming far too expensive, given that even a few acres cost several million now, even with the facade of the government’s Land Use prohibitions.

Unfortunately the only solution to this may come in the form of a disaster, a mega-thrust disaster. There is no will or even acknowledgement that affordability is a truly desired thing any more.

UNLESS you are very very wealthy, don’t even bother to consider a move here. Businesses here are already dealing with employees who refuse to work for them because the rents or real estate costs are far too high.

As for those who are being crunched like so much construction gravel under the gleaming towers, you really don’t have much choice but to move to somewhere else, raise your kids without the pretty picture of sea and mountain, and realize that unless a mega-thrust earthquake levels the playing fields here, you don’t have much a of a chance to get a decent living for you or your family.

Catriona Le May Doan, the Dutch, and Speedskating

I learned what the difference between figure, hockey and speed skates were very young. My father was a hockey referee, my mother had speed skates, those old ones with leather boots and long steel blades.

For years I wanted to put on those speed skates by the length of the blades scared me. One day, I finally did put them on, and cruised over a frozen lake. After years of using figure skates, I loved the way the speed skates let me move. Stopping was a different story and I found out how much ice can bruise my butt more than a few times until I was reminded to “snow plow”, a skill I had learned on downhill skis.

Skating on speed skates is great! It takes far less energy to get going, and the blades don’t rock so I could take long, easy strokes and enjoy the ride! I found out just how under-coordinated I was though, when I tries to turn. Amazing how much snow and ice you can plow when you slide sideways on a frozen lake.

But, after an hour of practice, I did manage to complete several circles without fear of spearing my butt, someone else, or making huge divots on the ice.

I have tried several times to find a place to buy some speed skates, but, unlike Holland or other places, the skates are hard to find.

I have watched speed skating competitions for many years, and when Catriona was advancing up the ranks, I was amazed at her skill, the huge length of each stroke, and above all, her incredible strength. Taking corners on skates, as I have found out, requires a real awareness of your entire body, especially your feet. Catriona seemed unstoppable at times, even to the point of my thinking she was not skating but floating over the ice while using some kind of magic to be seen as skating.

Now, on to this Olympics. I have friends in Holland and speed skating is their national passion. Sandra said the Dutchies go “gek”, and her translation was gek=crazy! So, while the speed skating competitions are on, Sandra and I follow the races, cheering on the Dutch if there are no Canadians within medal contention, and cheering our own competitors if there are.

What really makes this fun is listening to Catriona comment on the races, the technique, the skill, and definitely the strength each of the competitors have or are missing. This really makes watching a lot more informative, a lot more fun, and at the end of the racing, very satisfying.

Canadians who like to know the speed skating news heard about Catriona’s daughter being born, but in a passing small bit of news, while the Dutch papers covered that event with large items. Hmmm maybe Greta will become either a rancher like her dad or another strong woman with skates on like her mom. Maybe Greta will find a way to combine the two.. . . .. .

I do cheer on the Dutch skaters, but I want our own skaters to do very well on the day. That is the huge difference with the Olympic games, you are allowed to cheer on skaters from all over the world without being seen as “unpatriotic” and it makes the whole thing a lot more fun.

Thank you Catriona, Jeremy, Clara, and all the skaters for giving us a lot to cheer for. There are new skaters who need Canadian support, and perhaps the best place to show that support is by selling speed skates in the sporting stores. I would love to teach someone young how to just glide over another frozen lake and go for a nice, long ride on those blades.

Competing for Gold When YOU are the Spectator

There have been so many things to see in Vancouver, but they are usually unavailable to anyone with families and earning less than $60,00 it is ridiculous! To see the medals awarded will cost you money, to eat at any of the competitions, it will cost you money, and to even get into some of the places hosted by countries you have to pay.

Adding insult to this are the multiplicity of goof-ups. If you know that the entire area may be faced with warm weather, would it not be prudent to start making preparations long before the venues are going to be used? If you expect the world to come and visit, would you plan to have some way to get very good, or at least, passable, photographs of the symbols of these Olympics?

Move it back a ways and one of the worst goof-ups with the planning was done for the construction of the athlete’s village. When you are planning to have a building put up, would it not make a huge amount of common sense to get a builder that has an excellent INTERNATIONAL reputation for building on time, on budget, and without having a huge financial problem?

The same company that RUNS Whistler-Blackcomb has had financial problems for the last few years, yet someone in VANOC chose that company to build. Running a resort is NOT building, and that company should have been thoroughly examined for financial stability.

There is no reason to put all your Olympic eggs into ONE basket, and now the company that runs Whistler-Blackcomb is facing foreclosure and an auction of the property. That company was in such deep financial trouble that the building of the athlete’s village HAD to be taken over by the City of Vancouver, with the same sub-contractors. Now, during the Olympics, the athletes have found out you can hear very well through those very expensive walls, in fact, a little too well.

Now to the Spectator and people who want to enjoy the “Olympic Experience”. I went down to the area where the Olympic “cauldron” is, and when I got there, I found a huge chain link fence. Imagine trying to take a once-in-a-lifetime photo with a child and you cannot do it because there is a fence that is 12 feet high between you, the child and the cauldron. BAD planning again!

There have been all the stories of the lack of snow on the mountain that is the host site for a lot of the events, and I am wondering how much planning was done so that snow was built up to a 9 foot base. From what I can see, none. Yes, Vancouver and the entire west coast does experience warm, wet, windy winters, often never seeing snow in the valleys at all! There is snow making equipment on that mountain, and yes, there are temperatures cold enough during the fall and winter to get the base built.

Spectators going up to that mountain have to wait in line for up to almost 2 hours to get up to the venues, then, if you want so much as a cup of coffee, it takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours just to do that! Imagine spending most of your time in line for a cup of coffee or some food! NO, food and drink is NOT allowed to be brought with you, so if you have kids, or need to keep your blood sugar level, you MUST buy food or drink.

Right now, being a spectator has become a real sport unto itself! Getting around the sights and sounds is a marathon of patience, and you need to be able to steer children past those who consider “the locals” as something of a damn nuisance.

The cauldron photos are almost impossible to get unless you sharpen your elbows and fight for the fencing, then poke the lens through the diamond-shaped holes in the fence. Forget trying to put anyone in the photo. The fencing becomes the main focus of your image, not the person or the cauldron, and trying to edit out a huge chain fence from a photo becomes another version of skill and patience.

Now, if you are an enthusiastic fan of a certain sport and wish to see your athlete get their medal, you need to PAY to see that. Guarding your wallet becomes a dual sport, once on the packed public transit where international pick-pockets are very active, and second, when you have to figure out if you can even afford to go to the various sites!

I have dealt with huge crowds all my life, and pick-pockets are something I am quite familiar with avoiding. I KNOW how to do it, but when you come from another country, probably one that does NOT speak English, signs warning of the pick-pockets in English only are wasted space.

Vancouver has so many people from all over the world who have immigrated here, translation of these warnings would be so simple, yet someone forgot to plan for that too. So, for the visitors who see these yet cannot read or understand them, you may find the Olympics cost you not only money, but identification papers and possible more.

My advice for those coming to visit during the games? Buy a waist belt that has a pocket built into it, or a pouch that zips shut, then put what you only need for that day in it, NEVER carry your complete wallet or purse, and put a bit extra in another spot, in case you do get your money taken. This will be unlikely IF you do wear the belt.

Plan on taking twice the time to get to the venue, then at least 2 hours to get into that venue, and EAT a HUGE meal before you even leave your accommodations. Bring along a book, a pocket game, something to pass a lot of time without wearing out your temper or patience.

As for me, I am just going to avoid the entire thing, which is highly unusual for me, because I have no trouble with crowds and walking in them, but the hassles with all the venues has taken the enjoyment right out of it for me. I will watch on the television, and perhaps go to my own neighbourhood places to get what I need.

I do NOT enjoy going broke paying for something that is supposed to be FOR the people, not the business sector.

My wishes for those from all over the world are these: enjoy what you can, cheer on your team and sport, walk around without spending your money on knock-off souvenirs (there are stores packed with them here) and do what you can to make this a good memory.

As for the Winter Olympics in total, as an all-around experience, this one may just be written up as probably one of the lousiest, badly organized, and saddest there has been.

Oh, one point here, I lived in Calgary when the 1988 Winter Olympics were there, and there were FREE events everywhere, including ALL  the medal presentations, and there was no problem with any of the multiplicity (yes, many of them, not just a very select few) contractors and sub-contractors who built the facilities for the events, the media, and the athletes. There were contingency plans for all possible headaches, including those famous Chinook winds and warm winter. It was, as the IOC said, “the best ever Winter Olympics”, and I can definitely see the difference between the two now.