Open Letter to All Leaders

Dear Leaders please be aware of the war we are waging, between profit and sustainable life.  

"The planet is transitioning under our onslaught to a new era called the Anthropocene. This era is the product of violent conquest, warfare, slavery, genocide and the Industrial Revolution, which began about 200 years ago, and saw humans start to burn a hundred million years of sunlight stored in the form of coal and petroleum. Chris Hedges, Saying Goodbye to Planet Earth. 

Then there is this report by Guy Dauncey: BC's Climate Intentions Papers: A Timid Response and Twelve Solutions We Really Need: 

1. 100% Renewable Energy by 2040, 
2. 95% Green House Gas Reduction by 2040, 
3. Legally mandated annual carbon budgeting,  
4. Province wide public engagement, 
5. Stand firm against the pipeline, 
6. All new cars to be EV's by 2015, 
7. Massive support for urban cycling, 
8. Huge expansion of Transit, 
9. All new buildings to be zero carbon by 2024, 
10. Building energy labelling, 
11. No oil-heated building by 2025, 
12. Climate test for all new industrial projects, and zero carbon by 2040.

So, just in case you are wondering, like I am, why our powerful interests wish to keep sending us back to the end of the Roman Empire with its brutality and toxic machismo - ask yourself where has even one of these things been achieved or is seriously attempted? None?  Then ask yourself what is the common theme in the solutions to save the planet.

Life perhaps?  Has it come to this, that ruling powers are afraid of life, love and all the energies and information that shows a reverence for life? Does it look as though any political candidate who wants to save our world is going to be first tossed out by a group sabotage?

Spite is the sign of defeat

It's easy to rule the world if you have absolute power. You own the military, the civil institutions, the law and all the people. You rewrite the theology of your religion and kill those who argue. You can blame everything on those who have less power than you. Marry and behead your wives if they don't produce sons. Public executions end debate about right and wrong. You can threaten other nations with trade sanctions.  You can lie and demand that everyone calls it truth.

You can dismantle the UN, blow up cities, exterminate ethnic groups, shut down schools, ban music and theatre, fund fascism and hate groups, take children away from their parents and raise them on propaganda. 

None of this is new of course. George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and many others have written about dystopian worlds where no trace of integrity or justice can be found.  But men and women who worship power are eager to suck up whatever crumbs that fall from the table, in order to gain more for themselves.

Pundits are ever ready to sell themselves for a few points: -  Tory MP declares that diversity will destroy us; young man gunned down in road rage; man flies his plane into home after fight with wife; Conservatives side with authoritarian regime that beheads, crucifies, and flogs citizens.

If revenge, spite, guns and killing are the only subjects discussed in my community, it leaves me without agency or representation. Those who have done all they can to keep a job, rent a home, feed their family - still end up jobless and homeless, are led to believe they have two choices - blame themselves or blame others. It's a universal problem. 

In trickle-down economics, it's not wealth but propaganda, a hierarchy of importance, a class system, a pecking order, a food chain. It's easy to rule the world because those with the largest arsenal of weapons have the capacity to invent the gimmicks to keep the rest of us occupied until it is too late to see what we have lost. Then all that's left is to kick the dog for revenge, attack the minority, send back the refugees, watch the beheadings of those who dared to speak up, vote for the politicians who campaign on punishment, and so on. 

After the shooting on the Danforth in July, Matt Gurney wrote in The Walrus "I wanted these people who had seen violence first-hand to care more. Not to be traumatized, of course. But I wanted to see signs of engagement or curiosity or a focus on policy."


When spite is the only thing we have left, we have nothing but misery. This is the boot on the face of humanity, polished and paid for by an ideology that worships power, not life, not struggle, compassion, or vulnerability. 

350 Newspapers in the US decry Trump's description of the media

From CNN:

About 350 newspapers in the United States had editorials Thursday decrying President Donald Trump's description of the media as the "enemy of the people."

Here are some of the newspapers blasting Trump's anti-press rhetoric:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/16/politics/newspaper-editorials-trump-list/index.html

Gabriola: The Integrity and Inspiration of Art

DRUMBEG HOUSE ANNUAL STUDIO SALE
When: Sunday, August 26th 10 am - 4 pm
Where: 3085 Mander Road

This is probably the last time we will have a day when the general public will be invited to visit the Wakan home and studio. Naomi turns 87 this year and, while she will have books for sale on the day, all present and future sales of her books are being handled by the bookstore at Page's Marina (mail@pagesresort.com). 

Eli, too, is slowing down. Several of his large pieces will be available for silent auction at a low reserve bid, so now's a chance for you to get a "big statement" for your home, or office. If you're interested in negotiating a purchase before then, please check out the sculptures at www.eliaswakan.com 

Whether you're thinking of buying, or just want to drop by, we welcome everyone to help us celebrate our 22 years of creativity on Gabriola. This is a free event. We will have refreshments for you to enjoy.

Naomi Beth Wakan
3085 Mander Rd
Gabriola, BC, V0R 1X7
www.naomiwakan.com
naomi@naomiwakan.com

Is it possible to create radical change without violence?

(first posted August 24, 2016)

"The climate crisis is here, now, but a compromised, corrupted media doesn’t want to know." says George Monbiot (The Purse is Mightier Than the Pen)

Who controls culture? Is it media, public opinion, or money?

Culture is starved of wisdom if we abandon it to the authority of the purse.  If leaders are mesmerized by money they will follow trends. They will believe they have no choice, and what has happened to western culture is the wholesale sacrifice of life to the altar of profit.

The Library of Social Science researchers and scholars have hypothesized a law of sacrifice in six ways, the first of which is "Cultures invent or create ideological concepts that they elevate into “absolutes”— worshiped as the essence of society. But how do people persuade themselves that the ideas their society has constructed are real? "

Propaganda is very sophisticated, and we often can't see how we are being persuaded if not manipulated. Our own desires are reconfigured to lead us to accept horrible outcomes. Like war, for example - do we leave our home and family to slaughter strangers or let the enemy slaughter us?

We are raised to fit into the community, to trust the authority of parents and teachers, who help and protect us, and who will punish us if we don't obey.

But what constitutes  a well functioning society? One that makes clear the rules and laws and where the masses are seen as stakeholders. It's not fear that preserves this but social responsibility and integrity.

The radical change comes from the actions of an observant citizenry that is informed, educated on history and politics, who understands the principles of fairness and the power of inclusion. Those who watch and listen to what is going on around them and weigh that against media headlines. Those who ask who benefits and who choose the greater good, and who do not trust an institution just because it has power.

This would be the seed of the radical - that we practice citizenship and refuse ideological absolutes.

Often what is presented as radical is an invasion of hostile ideologies that persuade us to sacrifice our lives for God, country, communism or capitalism. These require violence and human sacrifice in the thousands because they are a transfer of power.

Whatever is worth defending is that which asks our input and attention, our care and help - to live for it, not to die for it. 

The Wealth of this Land is its people - Letter to the Premier of Ontario

Dear Premier Ford

I came to Canada in 1965, full of myself. I learned about being Canadian in the years that followed, because of the kind people who corrected my views of entitlement. They didn’t put me down, make fun of me, or shut me out - they simply explained they did not agree and why.  At the time I was not happy but later I would think about what they said and could see the value of their wisdom.

Later after the birth of my children and the guidance from Victorian Order of Nurses who helped me find answers, I could see how effective social programs linked knowledge to health. They had an education beyond mine, and they saved my family’s life.

Growing up watching popular TV and reading teen magazines I thought I had to learn how to come out on top, to make sure I had the last word and climb the ladder of success.  Of course so many other people felt that too, and when I didn’t win I would berate myself until kind friends taught me that wealth was in having a supportive community.

I thought many Canadians were really good at the down to earth wisdom and it was apparent how structurally violent my competitive attitudes were, how out of touch was my ego.

Then, housing was available to most of us, further education was affordable, and Canadians were mostly authentic. First in Montreal, then in Toronto, then Abbotsford. They came from India, Italy, Hungary, Ireland, UK, Germany and Africa. Their heritage was Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic & Protestant. Within a year or two immigrants would learn the real wealth of this nation - it was equality, positivity, and cautious optimism.

As turmoil around the world has caused insecurity and anger, I have learned how privileged I was to be an immigrant here. I have learned that peace can be found in compassion, empathy and a willingness to work for the greater good. I have learned from our First Nations the strength of working on universal values and taking care of our home. 

I write to ask you to consider the wealth of this nation that is beyond the bottom line and financial spreadsheets.  Please take care of the people first.

Janet Vickers

Gabriola BC V0R 1X1

1984 - George Orwell

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
― George Orwell, 1984

(This quote was posted in Episyllogism)