Fear Won. Civil Society Lost.

"In this election Adrian Dix and his campaign hit lots of precise if small notes that a political journalist like myself might keep track of and tally, but overall the New Democrats apparently neither summoned enough fear of their opponents nor struck the themes or meme-like policy ideas that summoned enough inspiration. Campaigns are not PowerPoint presentations. They are emotional narratives. You would think that journalists like me, who describe ourselves as story tellers, would have better sensed where this tale was taking people in the late chapters." David Beers, The Tyee.

The results are in.  The majority of voters do not care enough about their society to learn how power works against them.  They are happy to believe the slogans paid by wealthy transnational interests rather than think about how this affects the quality of life for them and their family.  They want to believe in their own superiority, their natural common sense, rather than find out how the operating system has kept the masses oppressed and ignorant. They want to believe that "Jobs" and "Economy" will be good for them without understanding how power sets the terms and conditions they must work under.

The majority of voters don't want to think about their relationship to social justice, or their role in community building, and so corporate funded media campaigns keep them mesmerized and oppressed. And don't think it will be status quo.  We have told the funding interests we don't care about our province, our neighbours, or our nation.  We only want to be entertained. So they can do as they like with us.

We are now Bangladesh. We are now, in narrative, a third world petro state and the operating system is designed so our elected leaders are powerless. The land will be destroyed by pipelines and tankers and we will pay the corporations to do it.

Our teachers and healers will burn out and our schools become warehouses for our kids while we earn twenty cents an hour in dangerous conditions. Our hospitals will be kept for those who can afford to pay for them while we die in toxic swamps. And if the poisons don't get us we will be too overcome with rage to organize and cooperate.

Over the last thirty years the wise and intelligent have warned us. Yes a minority have marched, protested and contributed to rescuing the human experiment. But the majority have dismissed these efforts for the fleeting giggles of the Dragon's Den.  Our communities will descend into soap opera dramas. Eventually we will pull out each other's hair, gouge out our neighbours' eyes and attach bombs to our own underwear.

All because we were afraid of the word socialism.  All because we became afraid of our own power believing that anything we do for humanity, community and society, is bad for us.

The fangs of capitalism have bled humanity of its worth and integrity. It has made us idiots in our own living rooms and we voted for its end game.

400 PPM and Beyond

fragile nature

"Last week the world's most important CO2 observatory recorded a daily average of above 400 PPM for the first time in history. The challenges are growing, and so our movement must keep growing as well."

350.org

Free CBC of political interference

taken from MP Profile

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your email about the Conservative government’s plans to take control of the CBC’s operating budget. I agree that the CBC must remain an impartial and independent body.

Bill C-60, the Budget Implementation Act. 1, tabled last week, states that the Conservatives may interfere in the bargaining process of the CBC, a Crown corporation that has been independent for 80 years. They will now be able to dictate the wage conditions of journalists whose job it is to monitor the government.

As well, Bill C-461, An Act to amend the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act (disclosure of information), currently before Parliament, is a direct attack on the independence of the CBC and journalistic sources.

In Reporters Without Borders’ (RWB) latest Press Freedom Index, Canada has sadly fallen from 10th to 20th place. This report states that Canada is now behind Costa Rica, Namibia, Andorra and Liechtenstein. The RWB has blamed the Conservative government’s actions and their incessant attacks on the journalistic principle of anonymous sources for this slip in the rankings.

For your information, the NDP has tabled a proposal for splitting the Budget Implementation Bill (C-60). Here is what we proposed:
e) clauses 228 to 232 related to the Financial Administration Act and collective bargaining between Crown corporations and their employees;
….that the clauses mentioned in section e) of this motion do compose Bill C-65; that Bill C-65 be deemed read a first time and be printed; that the order for second reading of the said bill provide for the referral to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates;
that Bill C-60 retain the status on the Order Paper that it had prior to the adoption of this Order; that Bill C-60 be reprinted as amended; and that the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel be authorized to make any technical changes or corrections as may be necessary to give effect to this motion.”

I want to assure you, my New Democratic colleagues and I will continue to defend the independence of the CBC. Thank you again for your email on this issue.

All the best,

Jean Crowder, MP

Nanaimo-Cowichan

What is Government?

image created by DOSGuy

The most basic definition of government is the organization or administration of the state.

But much has been written about government from many voices with varying points of view, it might be said that our own personalities are defined by how we define it.

Abraham Lincoln said "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. When they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."

The often quoted Thomas Jefferson said "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."

"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery" according to Jonathan Swift.

A part of the American consciousness is the suspicion of government as revealed by Henry David Thoreau "That government is best which governs least."

The notion that government is a handicap, brought to the new world from England by Thomas Paine is suggested in this quote. "The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security."

Even worse, that government is our teacher. It ... "teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy" (Louis D. Brandeis)

Or it "reflects the soul of its people. If people want change at the top, they will have to live in different ways. Our major social problems are not the cause of our decadence. They are a reflection of it." says Cal Thomas 


"Freedom isn't free" says Bill Maher. "It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable."

Easier said than done.  Noam Chomsky is more sympathetic. "If you are working 50 hours a week in a factory, you don't have time to read 10 newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works."

Government has been studied for many centuries, so we should be getting close to electing good governments, shouldn't we?  Especially as there is no shortage in wisdom expressed on the subject. George Monbiot does it frequently:

"Just as taxation tends to redistribute wealth; regulation tends to redistribute power. A democratic state controls and contains powerful interests on behalf of the powerless. This is why billionaires and corporations hate regulation, and – through their newspapers, thinktanks and astroturf campaigns – mobilise people against it."

Although there is a shortage of quotes by women, this doesn't mean women don't comment on government. Perhaps we think of how the structure of government and power affects our society, and so the last word goes to Frances Moore Lappe in an article that appeared in Straight Goods News.

"Maybe we begin here: recognizing that our crisis is not that we humans are too individualistic or too selfish. It’s that we’ve lost touch with how deeply social we really are. Easing the fear at the root of so much pain and violence that generates more fear — from suicide to child abuse to school massacres — comes as we embrace the obvious: We are creatures who, in order to thrive individually, depend on inclusive communities in which all can thrive."

This sensitivity to what is around us, is government of the mind and the soul. 

Developing Empathy

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat quote Roman Krznaric on their blog Spirituality and Practice  pointing out that empathy is not kindness or the Golden Rule but "the ability to step into the shoes of another person, aiming to understand their feelings and perspectives, and to use that understanding to guide our actions."  They give us a list of six habits of empathetic people: 

1. Talk with strangers ... "Don't be an examiner, be the interested inquirer." 2. Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities by keeping an open mind and heart. 3. Try another person's life by expanding your experience of others. 4. Listen hard and open up; listening and openness are two practices in the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy, and they are necessary to be an empathetic conversationalist. 5. Inspire mass action and social change as a concrete outcome of our empathy for others. 6. Develop an ambitious imagination, which means expanding our circle of empathy in creative ways.

We  live in a time when competition is emphasized as a way to success and the message is impacting children before they get to kindergarten.  We live in a time where there are many more victims of that ideology (say losers to use a common term) and where the winners are becoming fewer.  Consequently we become the oppressed and oppressors. 

Without empathy we cannot redirect the trends in our society that harm us and our children.

When Our Future Chooses Suicide

Gustave Wappers Episode of the September Days

Tonight I watched the news on CBC – the station I look to for commentary on the world as it is, even as I know it’s constrained with expectations from sponsors and other interests.

But I am disturbed by yet another story of a young woman,17, who commits suicide because of bullying. At least that’s how the story unfolds.  She gets drunk at a party. She is raped by a boy or boys and another boy films and posts it. (Yes it is rape if she is too drunk to know what she is doing.) Then she is called a slut. I assume these are her peers, in her school, in her society.  The cyber-bullying persists even after she moves to another school.

I wonder why the boy who raped her is not the one who is shamed, or the boy who took the picture is not named?  Are those who do the slut shaming virgins and do they understand how the word shames all women? 

In short why is the victim blamed and why after all these years of work from counselors, activists and concerned people, are we, the Canadian public not demanding the just society we grew up believing we aspired to? What has happened to our collective psyche that we accept this, that we are not outraged?

I have observed places that have been invaded by bullies (or opportunists).  Offices where people get along reasonably well, deal with conflicts intelligently, and focus on working together to get the job done.  Then an ego enters who is critical and manipulative. The good workplace erodes into a den of personal attacks, rumours,  bitterness, and resentment.  The work is no longer the main agenda.  But instead of the group acknowledging the cause, they blame whoever has the least power.

It is a pattern that ripples out.  The poor are blamed for the shrinking economy, the infirm blamed for high health costs, minorities are blamed for social breakdown, until the implosion of crises lead to despair and a rise in fascism.  The cruelest and darkest ages are not a phenomena of the past – they are the result of our inability to create the society we want.

The first society a child experiences is the family, the second is media.  By the time a person enters school they know how the patterns of power trickle down, but do we allow them the opportunity to examine and challenge it?   

When girls are raped in public (because the public is now in everyone’s pocket) then blamed, while the perpetrators brag – what does that say about the future of our society?

When our children choose suicide what does that say about the individual’s capacity to survive in cultures that do not support their worth and dignity?

Wake-up call for a giant: The EU must end discrimination against Roma

The European Union (EU) is not doing enough to end discrimination against Roma across its member-states, Amnesty International said on the eve of International Roma Day marked on 8 April.

“The EU must implement immediately the considerable measures at its disposal to sanction governments that are failing to tackle discrimination and violence against Roma,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Program Director.

“Such practices run counter to EU law and the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights it was founded on.”

The estimated six million Roma living in EU countries fall far below the national average on almost all human development indicators -- eight out of ten Roma are at risk of poverty; only one out of seven young Roma adults have completed upper-secondary education.

Forced evictions of Roma continue to be the norm rather than the exception in a range of European countries such as Romania, Italy, and France.

And education is segregated in the Czech Republic, Greece and Slovakia. This is at odds with national and EU laws prohibiting racial discrimination.

More than 120 serious violent attacks against Roma and their property occurred in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria between January 2008 and July 2012, including shootings, stabbings and arson attacks. State authorities, including the police, have in many instances failed to prevent or thoroughly investigate these attacks.

In 2000, the EU adopted the Race Equality Directive that prohibits discrimination based on race or ethnicity in the workplace, education, access to goods and services, housing and health care. The EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, which entered in force in 2009, also prohibits discrimination and enshrines the rights to education, social and housing assistance and work.  

As EU’s executive body, the European Commission is empowered to act against EU member states when they fail to comply with EU law and the Charter.

However, so far this has never happened with regard to policies and practices discriminating against the Roma or any other ethnic minority.

 “The European Commission has the powers to make a lasting impact on the lives of marginalized and discriminated communities in Europe, including the Roma. Regrettably, it has so far been hesitant to act against states which have violated the human rights of Roma,” said Dalhuisen.  

“What we see is the Commission sanctioning countries on technical issues in areas of transport and taxation, for example, but failing to grapple with issues which are of vital importance to millions of people such as forced evictions, segregation and hate-motivated attacks.

“The Nobel Peace Prize winning EU has the power to end discriminatory practices that are rife in many of its member States. It must use these now.”

Amnesty International’s briefing Human rights here. Roma rights now. A wake-up call for the European Union is a call to the EU to take decisive action and play a central role in ending the discrimination against Roma in Europe.

This work is part of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity Campaign, which focuses on human rights violations that drive and deepen poverty. As part of the campaign, Amnesty International is calling on all governments to prohibit forced evictions, uphold the right to adequate housing and ensure that victims of human rights violations, including economic, social and cultural rights have effective national and international remedies.

For further informaion contact John Tackaberry, Media Relations                   (613)744-7667 #236 jtackaberry@amnesty.ca

Briefing : Human rights here. Roma rights now. A wake-up call for the European Union