Sunday, March 15, 2015

Terminal apathy or poor timing?





Is it something we like to share? Is it a default position? Can a society move forward in unity with an abundance of apathy? Why was I late for the Vancouver Anti Terror Bill C-51? Am I apathetic or only poor at executing an agenda? I should have followed my first plan and adjusted my itinerary to fit with my own goals while resisting being coopted into someone else's plans/agenda. I suppose for many it is the same kind of scheduling conflicts, unexpected life events which cause us to diverge from our chosen paths. I regret not being able to be at the Vancouver in time.
Image



The reality is that time is on my side. I am glad to be free. Some important lessons have been learned by me. Personal life lessons have come to slow fruition with the help of my programs parole officer. I have come to terms with my poor choices and understand better why I made them therefore gaining an ability to advance beneficially in my growth. This allows me to be more reflective in my activism. It's all good.
Thanks to all those who have stood in my stead. 



Saturday, February 14, 2015

Canadians and their Federal Governments are Racists



Why do Canadians not love or care for as much about the 1200 missing or murdered women? Why the racist non response of the Federal Governments, as they do about, the two sadly murdered soldiers in Ottawa compared the missing women? The outpouring of sad formal tribute and the quick draconian response to limit our privacy as well as give police more powers came in lightning moves at great expense in costs and loss of rights. Yet Canadians don't seem to love our natives to care enough to find out what has happened to twelve hundred of them, let alone try to find and implement a solution. Could we still be a bigoted, racist society with little growth during our last half century of lip service to multiculturalism?

Our prime minister is setting the model defying the court ordered reversal of the wearing of a Niqab with a challenge using government resources to fight the courts. I can't understand why someone who can be identified in other ways must show their face if they have endured and won the right as Canadians to be who they are?

Get over it Steve, people have rights, not just your decrees.


I wasn't born Canadian, but I grew up here and am embarrassed by the blatant racism practiced by Canadians and their Government on a day chosen for love. Grow up Canada and elect an inclusive not a racist government. Share love don't bomb other cultures to appease the USA. Fix your own country, and don't march to the tune of haters

http://nomoreharper.ca/



Friday, January 16, 2015

Turbulent Times need someone who likes to fly rock and roll on flex wings


There has been a lot of sad news for Canadians happening lately. Just today the news is full of unthinkable things. Alberta’s Premiere was being interviewed on the possibilities of sales taxes to cover the shortfall from resources, 17,000 employees of Target Box Store retailers will soon be looking for work, Real Estate prices are said to be over-valued with a possible drop in the near future, and the Loonie is tanking. The world oil prices are so low it is a losing proposition to mine Tar sands. All of the indicators the Harper Government was so heavily reliant upon have shown that they were betting on the wrong horses.


To no one’s surprise the Harper government has switched its pitch from “You need to vote for us because we have given Canada a surplus” to “You should vote for us because at this time of economic crisis we are going to be steadiest at the helm.” Anytime is the right time to vote Conservative according to Mr. Harper’s yes men.


I am not unaware of the turmoil in the world. From religious fundamentalism wrapped in terror to a new reality of oil as an economic, cultural and social weapon we live in an unstable world today. Can you reflect on how quickly this instability has swept our blissful delusion of solid prosperity away in a moment? It was totally beyond our ability to influence it, let alone control it. No matter what spin the party politico talking heads will attempt to color it with, the reality is that there is much beyond Canada’s control. We have not asserted ourselves as an independent nation and are rightly judged to an American Colonial vassal state. The colonial part is aligned to the Monarchy of Great Britain. Canada under the Conservative’s view is still primarily a resource producer. Conservatives believe to stay solvent it is Canada’s role to provide the resources that America will market to the word. I would agree we have neither the manpower, nor the total “skillpower” needed to do this on the scale required that makes it economically viable. Especially when the viability has been undermined by the falling oil prices. The beauty of the whole situation is that the oil producers have full control of something we in the West are severely addicted to: Gasoline. We claim the evils of climate change, begin to search actively and successfully for alternative renewable energy sources, all the while reluctantly burning more and more expensive fossil fuels. In fact this pricing of oil is a brilliant strategy which can in the long run damage or even destroy our lifestyle if we aren't prepared to change.


I say the only solution to this is to reinvent our lives in a sustainable fashion which increases our independence from the control of other more powerful states or interests via our addictions to cheap fossil fuel energy, cheaply produced commodities, and our consequently lowered ethical standards.

With a land mass full of minerals, forests and fresh water, 9 970610 km2 (The world's second largest country) and the population of Canada as of October 1996 was 30 000 000 (30 million) Canadians would/should be sitting pretty in a global warming future, at least in the short run.
What in the heck are we afraid of? Are we worried that we won’t have the level of corruption of a society ruled by the one percent like our neighbors to the south? Just what do you need to be happy raising a family? A flat screen TV? Three Iphones? Two cars and a play station in a pool room? Just what is it that is making our children so prone to drug abuse and violence? Are we presently a healthy society? Is this the only model we have, driven by marketers, for a happy productive society? I just heard an interesting piece on CBC Radio one the other day concerning our youth and the problemsthat plague them. 



We need to evolve in our understanding and give our youth as well as everyone more control over their lives. Freedom is a liberating joyous celebration of creativity which has always moved humanity forward to a new paradigm.
Conservatives who wish to deny people freedom even to vote lawfully, to achieve what state of consciousness they wish, drive people to disobedience of poor laws in a spirit of rebellion. Corruption and violent lawlessness are the consequences of poor laws created by poor lawmakers. Conservatism has always historically concentrated power and wealth into the hands of the one percent. Some of this concentrated wealth always falls into the hands of powerful criminals who flourish in this type of social setting.

The one percent has the wealth to hire marketing mercenaries who are able to coerce the collective viewpoint into whatever shape they please. This is where our unbridled powers of Canadian Prime Minister’s Office can coopt elections using the public purse creatively. The PMO has too much power in Canada. There is a propensity to become dictatorial for any leader that might hold that office. Canadians have suffered for a century or more under the rule of powerful tyrants. Only occasionally have moments of enlightenment held sway. Mostly we have had rough handed, colonial, racist, narrow minded, anti-labor, short sighted governments. The easiest thing these talentless people could do was to steal resources from our natives and sell it to their corporate friends cheap.

The great Pierre’s vaunted statement “Canada is a mouse sleeping with an elephant” is a direct reflection of Mr. Tudeau’s mindset. He saw Canada as a “sleeping mouse.” I can’t understand why CBC is in such awe over this blunder. “We could be the 50 kilogram Elephant driver sitting between the beast’s ears making it do our bidding with a twitch.” That by KK in 2011. It is all about vision and ethical leadership which are in short supply in Mr. Harper’s gang-of-thugs government.
Don’t believe what the slick talking heads tell you. Reform is what we need at a time like this. A time for the blossoms of freedom to bloom again in Canada in 2015. Let the small minded Conservatives take a break and elect a minority government to show all parties who the heck is the real boss. We as Canadians want performance, cooperation and less political bs from our elected members..

Something I heard today on CBC Ideas really caught my attention because it was on topic..

"There were humans long before there was history," writes Yuval Noah Harari. Still just in his thirties, Professor Harari's book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is an international best-seller. IDEAShost Paul Kennedy in conversation with Yuval Noah Harari,winner of the Polansky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the HumanisticDisciplines.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A communication from Mathew Carrol, Leadnow.ca



2015 is underway and, while we’re working hard to build our people-powered election campaign,we wanted to follow up with you on an important campaign you participated in last year.

Over 26,000 members of the Leadnow community joined you in supporting the Reform Act, a bill designed to challenge the growing centralization of power in the hands of party leaders.  Last month, I was invited to Ottawa to present to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC), the committee that's currently holding hearings into the Reform Act.

To prepare for my presentation, I compiled feedback from the 4000 survey responses we received from people who had participated in this campaign. It was so great to be able to tell the MPs studying the bill what our community thinks about reforming our democracy - not just my own ideas. 

We've been to parliament a number of times for Leadnow's campaigns - to deliver petitions, give press conferences, and meet with MPs - but this was actually the first time we've been asked to formally present to a committee.

It was a fascinating experience. The government MPs sat on one side of a huge rectangle of tables, opposition MPs on the other side, with the chair of the committee at one end and the "witnesses" at the other. Along with myself, representing the Leadnow community, three other witnesses were there: Lori Turnbull, an Associate Professor at Carleton University; Former Speaker of the House of Commons, Hon. Peter Milliken; and Ned Franks, Professor Emeritus in Political Studies, Queen's University.

First we all presented a short opening statement (and you can read my remarks below at the end of this email), then the MPs asked questions. It was a thoughtful discussion of the merits and challenges of various parts of the bill, which tries to restore more power to MPs and local ridings, while balancing the needs of the parties centrally. What surprised me most was how different it was to the hyper-partisan and confrontational nature of - for example - question period. I think in part that's due to the hard work of Michael Chong, the Conservative back-bench MP who introduced the bill and has worked to build cross-party support for it.

I wish more of our politics could be deliberative and thoughtful, rather than brash and confrontational; perhaps the Reform Act will be a first step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see where the bill goes from here.

Thank you again for your participation in this campaign, and we'll be in touch soon.

Enjoy your week,

Matthew, on behalf of the Leadnow team

P.S. If you're interested in more details, below you'll find links to the audio recording of the hearing, and also the official transcript, as well as tweets from the CBC's Kady O'Malley who was covering the hearing and my opening remarks.




Sources:

[1] Audio Recording: PROC Meeting No. 60 (Parliament of Canada) http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/parlvu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?contententityid=12375&date=20141202&lang=en

[2] Transcripts: PROC Meeting No. 60 (Parliament of Canada) http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=6812548&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2

[3] Tweets from Kady O'Malley, CBC Parliament Hill Reporter https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=from%3Akady%20since%3A2014-12-02%20until%3A2014-12-03

[4] Leadnow's campaign in support of the Reform Act http://www.leadnow.ca/reform-act/

[5] My opening remarks to the committee:

Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC)Reform Act, 2014 (Michael Chong)Opening Remarks: Matthew Carroll, Leadnow.ca

Good morning everyone, and thank you for inviting me.

I'll say a few words about Leadnow in just a moment, but I'm going to begin with a couple of quotes.

The first is from Bruce Woollatt, a Leadnow member from London, Ontario:

"I'm tired of the MP for my riding being the representative of his party in his constituency, rather than my representative in Ottawa."

And this next quote is from Lori James in Yorkton, Saskatchewan:

"I've had enough of MPs waving talking points rather than debating issues and working together to resolve them. I want my representatives to work together for the good of the country NOT the good of their party."

Leadnow is an independent advocacy organization. We're working to bring Canadians together from coast to coast, and across party lines, to take action on the issues that matter.

Since our launch just before the last federal election our online campaigning community has grown to include over 360,000 Canadians.

Together, through online consultation and face-to-face gatherings, our community has decided to focus on three areas: building a fair economy, action to protect our environment and address climate change, and democratic reform.

What we keep hearing over and over again from our community is a grave concern about the state of our democracy, as well as a deep desire for positive change.

Democracy isn't an end in itself, it's a means by which we can come together to make progress on the major challenges we face as a society, and that's why when Mr Chong introduced the reform act, we felt compelled to act. There are issues that we believe Canadians want to make progress on, but the reality is that action to improve the functioning of our democracy and to empower MPs to better represent their constituents truly cuts across all issues and cuts across all party lines.

Over 26,000 Canadians have now signed on to Leadnow's campaign in support of The Reform Act. Yesterday I sent out a survey asking all of them for their opinions on the issues this bill encompasses, as well as their thoughts on democratic reform more broadly. In just a few hours, over 3,000 had responded. That's where the quotes I opened with come from - the voices of regular Canadians across the country who care about these issues.

These are Canadians who self-identified as being supportive of The Reform Act, as opposed to a random public poll, but I do believe it will be useful to the committee get a sense of the reasons why many Canadians support the bill.

First we asked about the freedom MPs have to represent their constituents over the interests of their parties. 91% told us it is "very important" for MPs to be able to disagree with, speak out, or vote against the official positions of their party.

One of the issues we've seen debated within the context of this bill is the ability of parties to ensure a diversity of Candidates. That's a goal that is in tension with the aims of increasing MPs' freedoms to represent their constituents. Despite that tension, it is something that is important to the Canadians we surveyed: 75% said it is very important for parties to be able to ensure a broad diversity of candidates.

My understanding is that Mr Chong's latest proposed amendments would give each party the power to decide what mechanism it puts in place for the approval of candidates. We asked people who they thought should have the final say in whether a candidate gets to run for a party. This was more varied, but 53% said it should be the sole control of the local riding association. 37% were in support of regional nomination officers, chosen by the local riding assocations. Only 6% were in support of nationally appointed nominations officers, and less than 2% believe the status quo of the party leader signing nomination papers is a good idea.

The last point I want to make is that while we believe the Reform Act is a useful first step towards democratic reform, and one we very much hope to see passed into law, it is just that - a first step. We have a very, very long way to go if we're going to meaningfully restore Canadians' confidence and trust in our democracy. At the end of our survey we asked what other reforms - that are outside of the scope of this bill - they would support. It's notable that over 96% believe our current first-past-the-post voting system is broken, and that we need electoral reform.

Catriona Sinclair, a Leadnow member from Millbrook, Ontario summed this up. She says:

"I believe the Reform Act is extremely important. I also very much want to see Proportional Representation brought into our voting system."
On behalf of everyone who signed on to our campaign, thank you again for inviting me this morning, and I look forward to the discussion.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Mr. Harper's sell out to American Imperialism

Take another hit of Beer Steve. Its the legal example to set even though it dulls the mental machinery


Origins of Conservatives, Liberals, and Beer




Although not unconventional in his approach, Mr. Harper has not thought his pipe dream all the way through. When his powerful backers were whispering in Mr. Harper’s ear, pushing him into their directions they were saying things like this: “Be tough on them Natives, Stevie. Don’t let them lefties derail our gravy pipe line train, Steve, and certainly don’t give up your firm grip on our power to do Canada good. Prorogue Parliament once a year if you have to. Getting the oil out will make Canada and the Conservative Party prosper. It’s a guaranteed thing….. We've got your back Stevie, just stay in power and stay the course. Canadians will vote for Conservatives for at least one more generation. All your friends can retire on our boards…….”

The problem with Stevie is, he has no record of making good judgment calls, (alcohol dulls the judgment) while holding a consistent record of backing losers, or at least not able to fully, accurately assess the worth of those who catch his ear. His myopic focus on the pipeline promises failed to take all eventualities into account especially where the real control in the oil business resides. That in essence is the major problem with any one man rule government. They fail to allow facts to seep in through their ideology.

A wise leader would have maybe broadened the scope of his dreams and tailored them to what Canadians need instead of feeding the long term Tory Wannabe Triumphant Machine first. Yes, he did the right kind of derriere smooching, stood up in the Knesset, sent jets over to pound brown people with Americanism, and generally kissed America’s ass, but to no avail. The Tory back benchers/yes men failed to see anything amiss as they were slapping each other on the back and shouting yes to the Harper government. Canada is not as big a player as Steve’s focussed hob knobbing seems to suggest.

Here is where the real jobs are created. Not in the back room deals of the Conservative Harper Government. 

See this Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs"



And here is why I believe we need to counter that with a new mind set featuring open creative consciousness not restricted by the narrow minded Conservative barren single track donkey cart lane of the same kind of thinking as had hindered Canadian independence for a century. Have we been resource extractors long enough? We need to reinvent our priorities and secure a future not dependent on a one horse pony show. As a society we need to use psychedelic medicine and be inspired by the new perspectives. Canadians need to down size our consumer cravings and be pragmatic with a multi solution approach that engages Canadians in every nook and cranny. Canada’s elected representatives should not be locked out of Parliament but encouraged to join in finding a solution to our problems.


Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Rediscovering God with Rupert Sheldrake. Truth or drug induced delusion?

I have been aware of  Rupert Sheldrake for quite a while. Due to my strong materialistic bias, stemming from being exposed to a snippet of science education, shunning him from my fields of research easy. Of late (at least the last year, it has come to my attention via direct understanding and several out of body experiences, that my consciousness is not generated within me. This guy makes more sense in this area to me than atheists like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins. These people seem to be zealots in the area of religious zealot exposure, rather than open minded inquiry. For quite a while Sam Harris has been spouting research of the brain showing that we have made up our mind long before we become aware of it. But he has no explanation for it. 



Besides, Rupert comes armed with real research data which is more impressive to me than the Atheist rebuttal of religion crap.



I believe tnat Psychedelic medicine is critical for our society to regain a balance with nature.




What convinced me that my  brain was not the origin of ideas which I thought were my creative genius was a revelation. It is exactly the analogy she used describing how the Romans thought of creativity. I understood I was doing something not of my origin in a great sense but plain old ordinary everyday stuff at least where creative genius is concerned. It is only channeled through me if I am receptive to it. I could be unavailable at any given time if my mind were busy with other things. It comes when you are tuned in.


Thursday, January 1, 2015

Can a Harper's Pipe Dream ever achieve the status of a good idea?


Strictly speaking, by definition, it can never be so. If a pipe dream evolves into a spectacular success, it must not have been a pipe dream to begin with. Or so would logic dictate. Again, as in the observer influencing the experiment, and causing the wave function to collapse in the double slit demonstration, it is the vantage point and fact of the observer which determines the outcome. Therefore, if one observes the outcome from the vantage point of a successful conclusion the only valid description of the chain of events would be that it was a fortuitous, miraculous concept come to fruition. No way could it be defined as a pipe dream. Of course, if circumstances were 180 degrees different and the venture had been a failure, for whatever reason, it could only take on the color of a pipe dream. The magic which makes one or the other happen, is of course the performance capacity, the will and sweat of those involved. It seems to me that the Harper Government is working a pipe dream in more ways than one. It has failed to win over the Natives who are our environmental gate keepers for the moment.


I don't wish to become a part of this rush to eviscerate our beautiful country of its tar sands bitumen in order to serve the world’s general craving to pollute the planet by using dirty technology. We don’t know the outcomes and consequences to us. Is this all that our so called talented "leaders" can do? Why can't Canadians lead the way to a better future for the entire world in the long run? Can we not rise above being selfish and greedy in the short run? Maybe not. 


Maybe it will be Mr. Harper and his kind who serve the corporations that will "secure" our future under corporate law? I think it is a watershed moment in Canada's history. Hopefully people all across this country will come to realize this and do something to help create a rational consensus that serves Canada well for generations with values we can all be proud of, while holding on to our resources in the eventuality we might need them. The oil boom Mr. Harper so desperately counts on, is like a sugar high: empty. And like a sugar high it is bound to go bust.  Oh wait a minute! Is that is what is happening now with oil in the high fifty dollar per barrel price range?


I see no good purpose for turning Canada into another American vassal oil state like Saudi Arabia, other than to squander our inheritance on a money grabbing scheme designed to feed the world’s addiction to oil. Here Mr. Harper on the one hand is belligerently telling Afghanistan to cease opium production because we are feeling the results of heroin addiction on our streets, all the while blithely feeding a much more dangerous-to-humanity addiction to fossil fuels. Such double standards intrigue and trouble me. They show me liars and crooks are at the helm.