Sunday 30 August 2020

What will come after America dies

 


"Right about now, something terrible is happening in America. Society is one tiny step away from the final collapse of democracy, at the hands of a true authoritarian ... Meanwhile, America’s silent majority is still slumbering at the depth and gravity of the threat."

Umair Haque, America is Dying.

Haque shares his experience:  "We survivors of authoritarianism have a terrible, terrible foreboding, because we are experiencing something we should never do: deja vu." Parents fled from collapsing societies and now their children are witnessing this in America.

Where can we, the masses, go next? What will we lose besides our homes, drinking water, access to food and medicine? 

Remember Europe of the thirties where strongmen rolled over the continent killing millions and destroying civil society? Remember how these came shortly after The Frankfurt schools, social justice,  and women's suffrage protests?  The sweep of fascism was the boot on the face of humanity.

Then the forties. Images of starved naked bodies piled up in pits. Then refugees who escaped the gas chambers. It was not just a documentary to precede the materialist boom. It was not just a drama with a happy ending.

For millions of people it was despair, torture, starvation, and mostly the loss of their families, their dignity, puncturing the idea of humanity as a civil, conscious species. It was a time when brutality defined the human experience, regardless of where you were born. 

The question in the minds of oppressors and the oppressed was - is this really human nature? Is there anyone I can trust? Who won?

Not the masses. This era brought new ideas, new inventions and new political movements rising out of the horror of our own shadow.

Then the opportunity to engage in materialism, unions, psychology, free love, free choice ... and new forms of ideology. The struggle for social justice drowned in advertising of shiny cars and kitchen appliances, women as housewives and sex objects, men as muscled warriors, movies and movie stars.

Remember the voices who said never again regardless of whether they suffered personally. 

All of the rights we have were hard won by a minority, by adults who were bullied because they took life too seriously, people who think too much, people who spoil dinner parties by raising questions of prejudice, racism and misogyny.  

Perhaps you are irritated by the woman at a school board meeting who demands our children be educated about the economic and social problems she thinks we are facing. Perhaps angry at all the statistics she throws out when all you want is to deal with that particular school or class. 

Or you quickly throw out the newspapers that cover stories on social injustice so you don't get depressed by the headlines?

Anyway you know who is blame. You have a long list of problems caused by 'others' who have 'failed' to get a job, a home, pay their bills. And no, you are not going to read how our forefathers treated the indigenous people, or how women are treated, or how African Americans arrived in slave ships.  You've heard it all before and you've had enough. You're sick of it all.

It's too much. But it feels like it's pointed at you. As though you should have studied the history of fascism to compare where we are at before it's too late.

No, it's not about being right. It's about being moved to do something you can do. At the very least, understanding how fragile we are. Understanding that hate never helps even if you hate the bad guys. 

It's about seeing how fragile you are and how fragile we all are to the longing for escape, and there are no boats or planes that guarantee our future, which doesn't excuse us from caring or doing something.

This is a shared responsibility to care about people and places you've never met. To have compassion and curiosity, not a gun. About restoring human relationships, enabling a space for us to grow, work, play and to love.


Saturday 29 August 2020

We Are In The Tunnel Now

 






We Are In The Tunnel Now


We are in the tunnel     still

we thought we had come through

but the circle of blinding brightness

never appeared against the dark

it must have been a crack or a dream 

when we flew to Mars and Moon

our magical thinking died after Nietzsche 

was blamed for the destruction of Europe.


Light is fickle against grey stipple walls 

— our flashlight too dim for perception

shadow precedes intention 

no religion can save us from hunger

love cannot bleach our body’s link

to the animal ancestor.


We created these walls and must 

keep walking towards light.


We have come this far

the journey not over — we shall die 

if we remain here.


(Sleep With Me: Lullaby for an Anxious Planet. Janet Vickers. Ekstasis 2020)

Thursday 27 August 2020

Book Launch August 24, 2020 - Sleep With Me: Lullaby for an Anxious Planet







Thanks so much to Joyce Babula for taking these photos.  Thanks to Leah for opening the event with her beautiful voice. Thanks to Greg for his help and thanks to Tony doing everything pretty much.  And thanks to all the people who came to listen and purchase a copy of the book.

Thursday 20 August 2020

Thank you to Amy Wright For This Information on Covid 19

(This information was posted on Facebook) 

 Here is my take. Short-sighted people want to dismiss COVID-19 as "just a virus". You may hear some suggest it's "like a cold". Maybe that makes them feel better because it's familiar and makes this crisis feel less overwhelming.

But here's the problem with that:
Chicken pox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years.
Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or stressed-out they're going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date) you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don't just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it's been around for years, and been studied medically for years.
HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system, and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had been studied medically for years.
Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be catalogued, much less understood.
So far the symptoms reported include:
Fever
Fatigue
Coughing
Pneumonia
Chills/Trembling
Acute respiratory distress
Lung damage (potentially permanent)
Loss of taste (a troubling neurological symptom)
Sore throat
Headaches
Difficulty breathing
Mental confusion
Diarrhea
Nausea or vomiting
Loss of appetite
Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young)
Swollen eyes
Blood clots
Seizures
Liver damage
Kidney damage
Rash
COVID toes (weird, right?)
People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again.
A man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to mention a $1.1 million medical bill.
Then there is MIS-C. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.
This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally *do not know* what we do not know.
For those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:
How dare you?
How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild symptoms" case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also know that 20 and 30 year olds have died, marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants have died.
How dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet know, but with what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:
Frequent hand-washing
Physical distancing
Reduced social/public contact or interaction
Mask wearing
Covering your cough or sneeze
Avoiding touching your face
Sanitizing frequently touched surfaces
The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.
I reject the notion that it's "just a virus" and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance. Being intentional and taking basic, common sense precautions has permitted me to avoid many common viruses. I've never had the flu. And while I'm not saying I never will, I also am not about to run out and intentionally expose myself to "get it over with".

Sunday 16 August 2020

Dr. Bonnie Henry - head medical officer for BC

Dr Bonnie Henry is the head medical officer for BC and has helped to bring down the virus in the province , her advice below is worth noting She has been working with viruses for 20 years. This post was shown on FACEBOOK this evening.

Below are Dr.. Bonnie Henry's Notes to all of us
1. We may have to live with C19 for months or years. Let's not deny it or panic. Let's not make our lives useless. Let's learn to live with this fact.
2. You can't destroy C19 viruses that have penetrated cell walls, by drinking gallons of hot water - you'll just go to the bathroom more often.
3. Washing hands and maintaining a two-metre physical distance is the best method for your protection.
4. If you don't have a C19 patient at home, there's no need to disinfect the surfaces at your house.
5. Packaged cargo, gas pumps, shopping carts and ATMs do not cause infection. If you wash your hands, live your life as usual.
6. C19 is not a food infection. It is associated with drops of infection like the 'flu. There is no demonstrated risk that C19 is transmitted by food.
7. You can lose your sense of smell with a lot of allergies and viral infections. This is only a non-specific symptom of C19.
8. Once at home, you don't need to change your clothes urgently and go shower! Purity is a virtue, paranoia is not!
9. The C19 virus doesn't hang in the air for long. This is a respiratory droplet infection that requires close contact.
10. The air is clean, you can walk through the gardens and through parks (just keeping your physical protection distance).
11. It is sufficient to use normal soap against C19, not antibacterial soap. This is a virus, not a bacteria.
12. You don't have to worry about your food orders. But you can heat it all up in the microwave, if you wish.
13. The chances of bringing C19 home with your shoes is like being struck by lightning twice in a day. I've been working against viruses for 20 years — drop infections don't spread like that!
14. You can't be protected from the virus by taking vinegar, sugarcane juice and ginger! These are for immunity not a cure.
15. Wearing a mask for long periods interferes with your breathing and oxygen levels. Wear it only in crowds.
16. Wearing gloves is also a bad idea; the virus can accumulate into the glove and be easily transmitted if you touch your face.
17. Better just to wash your hands regularly. Immunity is greatly weakened by always staying in a sterile environment.
18. Even if you eat immune boosting foods, please go out of your house regularly to any park/beach.
19. Immunity is increased by EXPOSURE TO PATHOGENS, not by sitting at home and consuming fried/ spicy/sugary food and aerated drinks.
Be smart and stay informed!
Live life sensibly and to the fullest.—
Be Kind Be Calm and Be Safe
Dr Bonnie Henry

Saturday 15 August 2020

The Different Powers You Have


Agency: power given to a group based on a mandated role, for example a police force having the power to arrest others under certain circumstances.

Analytic: ability to peer through issues to understand meaning and intention.

Artistic: ability to create something of beauty or integrity.

Bully: power taken by effectively intimidating or threatening harm to others.

Causal: opportunity to gain power through preceding events that may or may not be related.

Civic: power obtained and shared within a civil society.

Compassion: ability to identify with the suffering of another.

Covenantal: power structured from and within a group based on group agreements.

Cultural: power given to people who possess a knowledge of their history and heritage. The sharing of power through cultural practices.

Democratic: power based on a system of shared governance.

Empathy: the power to feel what another may be feeling.

Environmental: power given to those living within a supportive environment, either a natural environment that allows agriculture and clean water for survival, or a supportive family/educational environment.

Familial: power given according to the place within a family.

Gall: power taken, often temporarily, through risk and confidence.

Holographic: power seized by layers of conditions and events that inspire awakening, change and mass movements.

Infinite: divinity, god, goddess, creator - the power that belongs to the universe beyond the interests of particular species. Posterity, chaos, impermanence.

Influence: power to persuade others based on knowledge, rhetoric, through the skilled use of communication devices.

Integral: power earned through knowledge, authority, wisdom and justice.

Judgement: power of forming an opinion based on evidence, sometimes from perception which can lead to errors in judgement.

Kindness: helping another or others, without expected gain for the self.

Love: in its true unsentimental form is an elemental energy that binds all beings to relationship, which cannot be owned or controlled by any other power.

Matriarchal: power given to a female head of family.

Misappropriated: power unjustly taken from some to give to interests above and beyond their due.

Music: the power of subliminal tones to soothe, inspire and connect sentient beings regardless of nationality and language.

Natural: the power given to all beings based on the natural traits of their species. Every living thing from weeds to humans have natural powers. 

Personality: influence gained through force of personality, such as charisma, confidence and sense of entitlement.

Patriarchal: although this may be thought of as power given to a male head of the family, it is today a set of beliefs and practices based on notions around the nature of masculinity.

Political: means to affect change, influence opinion within government, business, the military and media.

Position: specific and hidden powers given to those who hold a professional or honorary position.

Propaganda: power to organize information to elicit a particular response.

Prophecy:  a wide angle view of present trends as they influence our perceptions and choices, along with possible dangers for the future, and advice on how to overcome the most harm.

Observatory: power of seeing, not just with the eyes, but with the full capacity of mind and body.

Reflection: bending back to consider a thought, an action, to re-think, to re-examine a position.

Sexual: ability to affect or manipulate based on sexual attractiveness.

Spiritual: power that transcends geography and time that enlightens and informs individual and collective interests towards insight.

Socio-economic: power allocated to those within certain classes based on wealth, family lines and education.

Telepathy: communication between minds, thought transference, capacity to understand a meaning which has not been spoken or written.

Understand: to grasp an idea, to comprehend the meaning of words.

Verify: to ascertain the truth of something through evidence or research

Writing: putting thoughts and feelings on paper, using words and sentence structure that readers can understand.

Will: determination to do something, go somewhere, say something.

Xenophobic: isolating minorities with prejudice to create fear, hate, to divide and conquer. As a political tool this usually results in all parties being harmed, including eventually, the ruling elite.

Yes: to affirm, agree to, approve, or contradict a negative.

Zoetic: living, vital energy, anima and animus - the seat of our power and its mortality.

Sunday 9 August 2020

Evolution (from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016)

 

Whitman, Emerson and Thoreau
died in America.


Four boys escaped Lejac and froze

to death on the lake near home.


The army in Uzbekistan executed children

as an example.


We are not really toilet trained.

We are trained to believe we are.


I have learned how to scream

with my mouth closed.


Friday 7 August 2020

The Measure of Wealth

"The measure of wealth in a civilized nation is not the currency accumulated by the lucky few, but rather the strength and resonance of social relations and the bonds of reciprocity that connect all people in common purpose." Wade Davis, Rolling Stone. 


Thursday 6 August 2020

This Province, This Land, These People



T
erry Glavin, a columnist for Maclean's and Postmedia, outlines the forgotten story of how BC started off as one of the most unique and progressive corners of the 19th century world. 

In a world of Indian wars, exploitative colonialism and widespread chattel slavery, pre-Confederation BC briefly stood out as a model of how a diverse, multi-ethnic society could live in cooperation with a region's first peoples. As we seek reconciliation, BC, in contrast to the rest of Canada, can find more guidance in its past than most realize.

Read the whole article here: https://www.capnews.ca/news/british-columbia-day-august-3-bc-victoria-vancouver-island-james-douglas

Greedy opportunistic rule has triumphed over human capacities. I fear we are forgetting who we are as a species.  Most of this planet's problems are caused by this greed. Even as we watch vast lands flooded or succumb to wild fires, those who have arrested democracy for their own interests fail to learn anything.

We need to pay attention to the Indigenous people as they are doing more to save this planet than our governments.


Wednesday 5 August 2020

Out of the Depths (Psalm 130)




I cry to the infinite echo
O hear the voice of my fear
Let my judgments be merciful
And should my errors be recorded
In the flowing out of time
Let me choose compassion
So that I may hold in my heart

An eternal place for you.







This poem was inspired by Psalm 130 from The Book of Psalms and first appeared in Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016. 









What's Happening Here

Apart from a war that kills innocent children,  my nervous system feels as though this is another war against life and living. This has been...