I Told You So

Some people have told me that it's mean spirited and not constructive to gloat. But to hell with that. I was right and they were wrong. If they'd listened to me then we wouldn't be in such a mess.

Today the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food stated: "Burning food today, so as to serve the mobility of the rich countries, is a crime against humanity."

Can't say it much more clearly than that. I was right all along as were thousands of other thoughtful people who saw through the bullshit promise of misguided and evil technology.

The saddest thing is that nothing is likely going to change because, in North America, we've built a society based on the automobile and ignoring our record of crimes around the world. But at least someone else is starting to speak the truth and joining our chorus.

Unfortunately talk is cheap.

Read Me

I just finished reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed. It's an amazing novel that has refined my thinking around how to live in balance with the earth and in nonviolent, communitarian communities. I urge you to take it out of your local library. I'm confident that when you've finished reading it you'll likely do so again or possibly, like myself, purchase a copy.

Here is a passage from the book:

"My world, my Earth, is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and gobbled and fought until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first. There are no forests left on my Earth. The air is grey, the sky is grey, it is always hot. It is habitable, it is still habitable, but not as this world is. This is a living world, a harmony. Mine is a discord. You Odonians chose a desert; we Terrans made a desert . . . . We survive there, as you do. People are tough! There are nearly a half billion of us now. Once there were nine billion. You can see the old cities still everywhere. The bones and bricks go to dust, but the little pieces of plastic never do--they never adapt either. We failed as a species, as a social species."

G.I. MacKay?

Retirement

What do you need to live?

It's a question that we don't often take the time to ask ourselves. There's so much pressure to buy things that we essentially give up our freedom. We have to work because every few years we want to buy a new car. We have to sell our labour to someone else so that we can pay off our mortgage after 25 years. We see our children as an expense not a treasure. We stop fighting for a better world because we are too tired after a 9-5 workday and weekends are full with trips to the mall. In our lives, we just do one thing over and over again and never explore the range of talents and skills that all of us have within us. I surmise that we aren't truly alive as consumer-slaves.

What's freedom?

That's another good question. Our leaders tell us that freedom is having lots of things and doing lots of things. Ski trips, road trips, holidays in the sun, Ipods, computers. This is freedom. Taking it a little further freedom involves the illusion that you have some choice in selecting who rules over you. Hidden dictators are better than overt ones.

What if freedom meant that you wouldn't have to sell your labour? You'd still have to live but it would be on your own terms. What if true freedom came from making your own things instead of picking them out of an online catalogue? What if freedom meant being responsible for yourself and your community?

We are taught from an early age that everyone is out to get us, to take advantage of us. But that's because the world we were born into works that way. One person benefits while a bunch of people do not.

It doesn't have to be this way. There are some communities and individuals that appreciate hard work, smiles and trust. You can seek them out. They are waiting for you and they'll help you to break your chains.

I've been a slave for a long time and my slavery hangs heavily on me. I thought that it was what I wanted: prestige, money, influence, the chance to make a difference. Then I realized that the people I respected were their own people, had their own thoughts, knew how to live in a radical way. They were different from everyone else and didn't give a fuck what the slaves thought about them. They were free.

I've come to realize that I need three things to be complete and live fully: community, food and shelter.

What do you need?

Small Things Matter

There is one type of comedy that I can't stand: laughs at someone's expense. I hate being the victim of this comedy, much as you yourself likely hate it. It often comes when one makes a mistake and someone jumps on it.

Look at the fool, he's so stupid. He's said the wrong thing. He's done the wrong thing. There is no empathy, no sympathy. Do we not all make mistakes on occasion? Must we be belittled on these occasions?

The worst though is when the whole room gets behind it. All those smiling faces giggling at your expense. All of them looking at you. Not letting up, the jabs increase exponentially. It goes on and on. The goal is to break you, teach you your place. This is a fucking hierarchy you bitch, there is no equality, no solidarity. Just you you weakling.

How do you respond in this case? To lash out is meaningless and just calls for more ridicule. You can try and walk out but then you are weak. We are not all witty either. And to explain that one is hurt definitely means more laughs; poor baby, can't take a joke. The only hope is to defer the ridicule to someone else. That sucker is more pathetic that me. Let's pick on him and forget what I did or said. Phew.

I've been through a lot of these as has anyone who attended a formal school. I hated it then as much as I hate it now. My choice has always been to respect everyone and try and challenge or at least divert these attacks. Comedy is not funny when it's hurtful. Please bear this in mind dear reader.

I'm sure you remember a time when this type of attack has happened to you or you witnessed it happening to someone else, perhaps even someone you care about. Never forget it--especially if you reject violence and hierarchy and group-think. Stand up and be counted and do the just thing.

More Evidence

After a few years stalling, the UK Government was forced to reveal that it ignored internal reviews expressing concern for a species of whale at risk from investing in oil and gas in Russia's far east.

We didn't need those whales anyway, driving is way more important.

Not much else to say really is there?

Nasty, Brutish and Short

I had a good conversation with a few friends last week. We definitely don't see eye to eye on a lot of things but it's so good that we're still talking. Unfortunately while we're talking the human juggernaut is continuing on its path of destruction and is taking everything with it.

The conversation was all encompassing but partly focused on our differing views of the natural world.

For me, nature is perfect. When I refer to nature I mean ecosystems, the climate, the predator-prey relationship, the biosphere, the hydrological cycle. When you take the time to look at it from this macro, systemic level it works so wonderfully, all the parts in perfect balance; I sometimes wonder if humans are jealous that they could never create anything so perfect and that's why they ruin wonderful places.

But it's also perfect for me at the micro or individual level. For the past few days I've seen a female squirrel from my window eating the buds on a tree. She needs to survive for a few more weeks before the bounty of spring and summer. The tree suffers a little but really it just pushes the tree to grow taller, bud more and favours the high buds which she can't reach as easily. And I think about the story I once learned about a species of tree whose fruit must pass through the intestinal tract of a specific bat species for it to germinate. Imagine how many more of these intricate relationships we don't know about? And bluntly, my wonder doesn't require that I know everything.

My friends though were fixated on what they perceived as the dark side of nature. To them it's nasty, brutish and short. Nothing to be celebrated but to be avoided at all costs. I don't think that they view all of the natural world through this lens but it's prominent for them; I know that a rainforest would take their breath away for instance.

Still they had seen many examples of what they viewed as the mass suffering of the natural world. Polar bears too exhausted from swimming to kill their prey, killer whales hunting for sport and little else. These specific examples portrayed on television eclipsed any notion that nature was perfect and balanced and wonderful.

While I share their sadness and empathy with these creatures, I'm not ready to condemn a proven system based on a few specific examples. And even if I did condemn nature for its occasional misery, doing so would be ridiculous. Humans are part of nature. This is our one and only home. We are not separate from these realities. We either obey natural laws or we go extinct. And currently we are getting busy going extinct. Unfortunately we're taking every other being with us.

What does viewing nature as nasty, brutish and short, in the words of Thomas Hobbes, mean for our relationships with other beings and ecosystems? Does it mean that we must do everything to live apart from this terrible life, to insulate human civilization from the natural world? Does it mean that we can do what we please and damn the consequences? Does it mean we can treat animals and other beings as our slaves? If we know deep down that we belong back where we were formed and nurtured, do we hate ourselves?

Yet it's an illusion to imagine that human civilization is somehow better than nature, which I feel my friends did. The civilized world is much more violent and destructive than nature both at an individual level and certainly at a systemic level.

At the micro level, think of a mine and the pollution of waterways and the destruction of the local ecosystem. Think of a dam and the end of salmon runs that have lasted for thousands of years. Think of mousetraps and broken necks. Think of building expressways through forests. Think of birdsong outside your window that disappears with each passing year and new subdivision and skyscraper.

Then take it to the macro level and the damage of civilization. Think of billions of tons of carbon dioxide that should never have been entering the atmosphere and the warming of the planet. Think of billions of poor, brown people whose only crime was being born into what could only be called slavery. Think of continents of plastic that will never decay unless the earth provides a solution. Think of giant war machines and pillars of smoke. Think of rising cancer rates and obesity and mood disorders.

I accept that some beings suffer in the natural world. But on balance, civilization is guilty of far worse crimes. Without civilized humans, nature would have lasted forever. Forever. Until the sun burned its last atom and every being saw nothing but light, felt nothing but burning heat. And then we were all gone, together. Like we always were.

Palestine and Israel Insights

Good old Al Jazeera and Avi Lewis. Check out this interesting report into the power of the Israel and Palestine lobbies in Washington and their impacts on the US presidential election. One more reason, it seems, that Barack Obama can never be president.

Part 1



Part 2

Down

So this evening I read two different pieces of news. One from CATCH here in Hamilton explains that the City of Hamilton has just advertised a public information centre for Monday (it's Friday). The purpose is to get/ignore public input on the proposed aerotropolis project. For those of you not in the know, Hamilton is banking on a future built around air travel. Insane? You guessed it. But the best part is they don't want to be reminded of it hence the poor advertising and likely, limited response and green light to do what they want anyway.

Secondly, I read in the Guardian today that Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General responded to the global food crisis. He said: "We need to be concerned about the possibility of taking land or replacing arable land because of these biofuels. While I am very much conscious and aware of these problems, at the same time you need to constantly look at having creative sources of energy, including biofuels. Therefore, at this time, just criticizing biofuel may not be a good solution. I would urge we need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner."

In other words: "I know it's a problem but I really don't want to risk my six-figure salary. Fuck all those people who are going to starve, the rich need to drive. Fuck all those animals and plants that will be displaced as more land goes into fuel cultivation. Fuck planet earth." This is message, essentially, of both news pieces.

So sitting here, staring at a screen, I'm sad. I'm so close to saying I'm done with this bullshit world. There's nothing good left besides my community. Democracy is a sham--what else is new? We're destroying everything special about the world for nothing but short term gratification. And no one really cares if it means they do with less which they most certainly must.

I just want to disappear and live out my days as the world rots from this human infection. I'm so tired of fighting and speaking the truth. No one is listening. I'm often wrong but I'm right on this one. I know what we need to do to survive. It won't be fun but it's our only choice if we want to survive. But we're not there yet and I doubt we ever will.

Glass half empty. You bet.

Uranium Country

I attended an amazing lecture last night on Canada's role in the global nuclear industry. Jim Harding, the author of Canada’s Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System, was in Hamilton to speak on the subject of The Nuclear Church of Canada.

There's no other way to describe it. There's no rational reason to back nuclear power so proponents have to point to faith. It has been repackaged and repackaged over the years but it's still the same creature: a white elephant. First it was for peaceful abundant energy in the 1950s. Then it was the energy solution in response to the oil shocks of the 1970s. Now it's the climate change solution. Yet nuclear for so many reasons has never caught on.

Nuclear energy certainly isn't safe since it poisons the earth (both mining and spent fuel including depleted uranium munitions) and leads to nuclear weapons proliferation. Nuclear energy and weapons are one and the same as I've repeated countless times here. Nor is it economically viable without massive subsidies and full life cycle costs show that nuclear energy is not the carbon saviour it's portrayed to be.

What Canadians don't recognize, or assume technology will fix, is that uranium mining destroys ecosystems and kills all beings. This is at the level of the individual or community. Port Hope, Ontario a place I'd never heard of, has some of the most dangerous air, due to free isotopes, in Ontario. It houses a uranium refinery. The best part is, the Government of Canada knows it's leading to higher cancer rates and other deformities yet Health Canada has never conducted a rigorous health study. Ever.

They can't. Much like the Alberta tar sands, industrial civilization is in denial that all our "progress" has only benefits--such as they are. The government and corporations are complicit in this pure violence.

The best part of the evening was when I stood up and called this behaviour (mining, refining, building, dumping, ignoring, censorship, denial) what it is: insanity. A nuclear clergyman behind me blurted out in response: "You have to live". This man of the cloth was so screwed up that he didn't know what living actually is. Cancer is not living. Breathing in isotopes is not living. Poisoning ecosystems is not living. Very little that civilized humans do has anything to do with life.

We must reject this false religion and its scores of acolytes. We must erase the churches in our minds that ignore the truth that we are rubbishing the entire planet one plot at a time. And then become part of the community of life again. It's always been the only way.

Evil Askew

So it seems that his reign of terror is over. No, not George W. Bush, not yet, but Robert Mugabe. You should have seen the negative press he got in the UK in 2003 and very likely to this day. He was evil incarnate, kicking white people off their productive private land and impoverishing his nation. Then I knew many people of colour who saw him as a hero though they kept their voices down. But in Britain there were even calls to cancel cricket matches in Zimbabwe and impose sanctions and support the opposition. Sounds familiar.

But now he seems to have been unseated. A coup perhaps? An invasion from several neighbouring armies you might be thinking. Maybe he was assassinated by a British agent? Surely no democratic process would have unseated this tyrant, this least of democrats.

Again this is yet another example of an "evil" regime actually following the rules. There was an election. No cheating no stuffed ballot boxes. He lost, fair and square. And not just a meaningless loss either but Mugabe may not be president in a few days time. How the mighty have fallen.

Now this election demonstrates to me that the previous elections were also free and fair (for the most part because which state actually holds free and fair elections). Therefore the majority must have been behind him. Obviously he ran out of steam which is hardly unexpected given he has been in power for so long and had done many terrible things.

It also makes me think of Hamas, the rightful government of Palestine. They obeyed the rules but learned that if you're labeled "evil" you might as well not play the game. But Palestinians voted for them in droves. They were their democratic choice for better or worse.

Hopefully we'll see some similar tyrants unseated. Let's start with Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Oh wait, he's a friend. Don't expect any calls for him to step down or for him to hold free and fair elections from the "good" governments of the world.

Anyway farewell Mugabe. I'm sure there's a bullet or hangman's noose waiting for you. Now I wonder how quickly international financial institutions will be on Zimbabwe like crows on a corpse. "We'll save you", I can already hear them saying. "Just sign here and we'll give you all the money you need".