Think About It

Lately, perhaps for an obvious reason, the path has been leading me to learn more about more about the issues that this famous Canadian doctor discusses.  The links between childhood and the trajectories of our lives and between our minds and our healthy or unhealthy bodies. Check out the video and take care of yourself and others.  

--

Incidentally I wanted to write something about the importance of independent journalism.  I guess I'm older now and I actually do like many middle class people and give to charity at Christmas.  How far we've come!  Most people give to food banks and the like but I want to propose that you, dear reader consider another, I would argue, more valuable investment.  

I think that's how we need to look at it, as an investment, not as charity.  

Independent journalism is a rare thing these days, newspaper chains and media conglomerates decide, really when it comes down to it, what people think.  We don't have a lot of time to think for ourselves these days.  So the messages benefit a particular system, specially the wealthy and powerful who own these media outlets.

But if we owned our own media or supported media that matched our values then new discourses would arise to challenge the powerful.  So this year, as every year, I donated $100 to Democracy Now (who interviewed Gabor Mate above).  It's a small amount and what I can afford.  But I support a successful model that at the minimum is an outlet for other voices.  

I also became a sustainer in the Media Coop, a Canadian network of local independent journalists.  I give $20 a month to this organization.  I often imagine that I could convince 100 friends to do the same.  You know writing this is good but I should really ask people to do so.  But anyway, we all want independent journalism, and if we want it we have to pay for it.

It's a good investment.  Think about it.

Please, let something matter again, let something change.

Wow, heavy article from a reporter embedded with Occupy Wall Street.  Long, but definitely worth the read.

Not a Death Sentence

Something attracted me to to this article.  I guess I do read sensationalist news like everyone else.  

So mother abducts son to prevent him from receiving 'life-saving treatment'.  This is the actual text of another article I found.  Just by writing that, the reader must assume that the mother is crazy.  She's choosing to kill her son.  Everyone must be lining up with the doctors and, now, the judges to condemn her and her 'evil' choice.  Chemotherapy and radiation are 'treatments'.  It's okay to cut up his brain.  They even call her 'cancer mum'.  Wow, I didn't even notice that.  Disgusting.  Truly fucked.  

I guess I should write a letter to the editor.  

But I mostly want to write to Sally.  I want to tell her that as alone as she must feel, with the terrible choices that she has to make (or not make according to the judge), she is not alone.  She is not a 'cancer mum'.  She is not killing her son.  She is thinking hard about this, about these dismal choices.  She has seen him go through 'treatment' already.  She has to visit him in hospital every day with tubes coming out of his chest and head and beeping machines all around him.  Sally you are amazing, strong, beautiful.  You are a mother.  

Our culture (endless economic growth?) is cancer.  But that's another story . . .

To get personal (and I don't like to do this online), someone very very close to me has cancer (or whatever you want to say).  She was diagnosed going on nine years ago.  

Nine years.

Cancer it seems is not such a death sentence.  She has taught me that and so much more in these years.  I, like everyone else, assumed that when I got cancer (and who doesn't in this toxic culture) that I would be living under a death sentence.  She has taught me that fear is probably your worst enemy when you are diagnosed.  It is not a death sentence.  Don't ever forget that.  I won't.

It was breast cancer.  She wanted her breast removed and refused chemotherapy and radiation eight years ago.  The doctors showered her with fear and borderline hate for this choice.  One of them told her 'I never want to see you again'.  They denied her the surgery until it had spread, then they cut her up.  Now it's in her bones.  But she's still very much alive, slowing down for sure, sleeping more, not doing as much.  But she still writes to the prime minister every other day.

We joked the other day about her status as palliative.  She has been palliative for a long time.  She asked the palliative doctor if, since she keeps staying alive, she should be removed from the roll.  He said that if she's not dead by 2018 then they'll remove her.  Well I'm sure he didn't quite put it that way.  It's good to laugh anyway. 

I think we need to recognize that chemotherapy and radiation weaken our immune systems and can allow cancer to spread.  Combined with fear and worry, since we are psycho-physical beings, the disease spreads.  How many people have radiation and chemo and are pronounced cured only to have cancer return?  I think of Jack Layton.  Didn't he lead a stressful life before the end?  Was that good for his health?  And you can bet he ate organic.

But here we are in our thought prisons again.  There's only one way to 'battle' cancer.  Everything is civilized language: war, conquest, violence, only one way to live and be.  We all line up with the doctors and the media and isolate and marginalize (perhaps even criminalize) people who make different choices. 

And with a child, that's hard.  The hardest.  It's easy for me to talk, I make my own choices.  

Sally, I can't imagine what you are feeling.  And your dear son.  All this stress is filtering to him.  But I'm with you, a lot of us are.

Alcoholic Faith Mission

Probably everyone in the city has heard of this band but thought I would share.  If you go to their website you can listen to more music.  Reminds me of TV on the Radio at times.

Atamai

Perhaps you might remember some of these folks.  Keep up the good work everyone. 



Atamai Village -- Permaculture Community from PassitOn Films on Vimeo.

Hope

Tonight I gave a short presentation on hope for the start of Advent.  Not much of a religious man I know (well maybe you don't actually know this old Presbyterian that well) but I was invited.  I spoke about how hope can be a prison.  How action is much better.  How we all have power if we only knew it.  I still don't know it I think.  

And then I read this.  I know a thing or two about fracking and you might want to know something about it too.  Particularly if you live in a rural area.  I guess the hope is almost all squeezed out of me.  

I see where we are going thanks to fracking.  People are poisoned, slowly but surely, wherever it spreads.  And shale (and therefore gas and oil) is everywhere.  Maybe there are some places with tiny shale reserves under the ground, inefficient to extract.  For now.  But to keep the party going we are going to frack everywhere.  Force out every last cubic metre of gas, every last barrel of oil.  And we're going to burn them and party until we can't.  I expect that this will mean that all the humans will leave the countryside for cities and towns.  Easier to police of course.  And then there will be no one to require public meetings and public information sessions.  Lakes will be drained and turned into frack fluid.  The air will be thick with chemicals.  Many animals will die.  But the city lights will stay on.  This is where we are choosing to go. 

Makes hope an attractive thing.  But I'm not going anywhere. 

Bison?

I took my sister to the dentist the other day with my mum.  On the way out, my mum bumped into someone she had worked with at the local nursing home.  The lady's husband it turns out is the fellow I'd hear about who raises bison.  I had heard that he has a loyal clientele and was unlikely to have any to sell but I thought (as mum would say) 'what the heck' and told his wife that I'd be interested in ordering some.  

He called the other day.  So it looks like we are getting the front quarter of a bison sometime this week.  Should cost around $270 he said.  I don't buy meat from the grocery store and those killers at XL Foods but I think it'll work out to be equal or somewhat cheaper.  And the bison doesn't get fed GMO corn until it's almost dead like conventional beef cattle.  It's all grass and apples. So organic effectively and local.  Can't beat it.  

I guess perhaps that the reason people go to the grocery store for meat is because it's easy.  And maybe they don't have the money to put up for a big order.  Maybe we're just disorganized.  But think how much we could be supporting local beef (and bison) farmers instead of big feedlot companies?  Wouldn't that be better?

It's going to be a lot of meat.  We'll find room for it I'm sure.  And we can share it with friends and family too if there's too much.  I've never done this kind of big order before but there's always a first. 

I heard a doctor of Chinese medicine recently who said that a Chinese friend was shocked that in North America, summer is barbeque season.  He said that meat (especially red meat) is a hot food and is meant to be eaten during the winter.  It's not healthy to eat hot food in a hot season.  This makes sense to me.  Also it's a time of no fresh veg (unless you go to the grocery store and I resist).  So maybe it's a time for meat and potatoes.  

Brutal

Another important, yet always hidden and justified, real story of real people.

Apologies

I have not been keeping up with writing. Sorry.  Not that I think many people are reading.  But still it's good to have a journal.  

So what's new?  What's worth talking about?  Fiscal cliff: boring.  Palestine: same old story.  US election: get ready for the one party system.  Omnibus: you expected something different?

So we'll get back to real things.  The garden is almost finished for the year.  We still have jerusalem artichokes and parsnips in the ground and provided it doesn't freeze completely we'll still have time to dig them up and store for winter.  Our basement is full of potatoes and carrots and beets.  Feels like the hot, dry summer made for less of a potato harvest but I'm not sure.  I think it's more or less the same.  

The first year with a greenhouse was a great success.  Lots of jars of really sweet and bright red tomatoes in the basement.  We made some eggplant pickle and our very own hot sauce.  Also made some green chili pickled which is so hot.  Can you tell I'm addicted?  All this from our greenhouse.  We planted lettuce and spinach and kale in there in October and we'll see how it does over the winter.  We have a small problem with an area that gets flooded and this will need to be addressed next year.  

Right now I'm writing from the city.  We just bought a motorcycle and we have to stick it on the back of our trailer and take it home.  Long drive.  I'm very worried about it falling over.  Probably it will be alright.  We'll let you know.  A motorcycle seemed like a great idea but now I realize that it's just added a lot of complexity to our lives.  I have to now learn to be an amateur motorcycle mechanic.  I guess it's learning something new.  But I would much rather not.  I think I'm just seeing it as daunting but changing oil and lubing chains isn't actually that much of a big deal.  Will be so sweet to go for a ride next year!

And in case you think I'm going through a mid-life crisis, we actually got this to be a commuter bike.  We were hoping to get rid of one car and have a car and motorbike.  It may happen.  But with non-driving family about we can't seem to shake that we are effectively a taxi service. 

Rambling on.  Stay tuned.  Or not.

City Blues

So I'm here in the city.  Blah, blah, blah.  The good news is that I'm going home tomorrow.  All we seem to do here is go shopping and eat out.  I guess these are the things that one does in the city.  I suppose that if I ended up staying here I would find a way to pass the days but it does seem to all involve spending money.  Maybe I would have a few projects. 

But I suppose I should mention that it's not all bad.  We get things here that we just can't back home.  We appreciate that.  We even went to see a movie which was something we hadn't done in what feels like years.  Together at least.  It was Looper, a pretty cool movie.  Though there was this outrageous preview for a new movie called Red Dawn.  Apparently North Korea, invades the US and the patriotic hicks fight back.  It's more of the bizarro world, I laughed as loud as I could.  I guess when you are the country that actually invades others, regularly, you have to pretend that you are always under attack. 

I guess the thing for me is that I feel useless in the city.  I'm really just killing time, and that seems a crappy way to live for me.  At least I'm writing this blog post. 

And there's cable here and I'm watching game four of the World Series.  So much advertising.  The opening pitch was brought to us by Budweiser.  The defensive lineup brought to you by Dick's.  Just killing time again.

Thought Prisons

We're about to have a municipal election where I live.  Six council positions and three have been acclaimed.  The others are likely to go straight to the incumbents.  But you never know.  But even if a new candidate was elected, he or she is likely to inhabit the same thought prison as his or her predecessor. 

This idea of thought prisons just popped into my head.  In politics, but thought and debate about major issues more generally, we are really only allowed to operate within a tight band of opinion.  So for instance the (global) economy is viewed by all within our thought prison as a wonderful, unquestioned thing that brings us stability, happiness and fulfillment.  No one brings up the negatives including its direct link to the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.  It's not even that we are prevented from bringing it up, we actually restrain ourselves. Try standing in a meeting and describing how the economy acts like a cancer, growing endlessly and consuming life.  You'd think you had turned into a card carrying Liberal, talking about how we need sustainable growth or a 'green' economy as if some food colouring would help.  Well maybe that's just me.  It's even worse if there's a camera around. 

When I think of Canadian politics much like US politics, many progressive people long for the rise of the NDP to be the government of Canada.  The party has some impressive policies in some areas.  But having seen this rise on a provincial level (figured out where I live yet) we should expect to be disappointed.  To be electable in Canada you have to embrace your thought prison.  You can have some wiggle room to be pro-choice or pro-life but as long as you don't challenge the thought prison (and you can't) then you can rise to the occasion.  I can see a federal NDP government calling for a 'balanced' approach to fracking or how they support 'responsible' mining in developing countries.  But, hey, we'll feel happy in our thought prison at least and maybe that's all that matters.

The US election is particularly disturbing on this charge.  Check out the great analysis from Glenn Greenwald below if you have a few minutes.  Last night I was lying awake with visions of Obama-plums dancing in my head.  I thought of the evil one party Soviet Union but really what you have in the US is the same thing but you can change the colour if you like.  The result, and the thought prison, is the same.  Feeling a bit misogynist, vote Republican!  Feeling guilty that you're gorging while some family starves in a tent on the other side of town, vote Democrat!  But in the end there's really only one party in the thought prison.

I was thinking about how this might change, how these thought prisons might be smashed open (metaphorically of course).  Is it even possible to change after so many years of what could easily be called brainwashing?  Really deprivation and suffering are how things will change.  If you're not completely worn out and run ragged and can see that you have less while others have more then you might notice the prison and think outside this thin band of thought.  It's a tall order.  But I suppose there also have to be thinkers and demagogues to articulate new thoughts.  

Now I'll go back to reading articles and opinions that further restrict me to my thought prison.  And on Saturday we'll welcome a new county council with a lot of new ideas.  They'll just look a lot like the old ones.  What a relief!

Everybody Knows

No recovery until 2018.  Came across that one today.  I'd love to travel forward until 2018 and see the similar comments from learned economists then.  'No recovery until 2025'.  It's looking to me like there is never going to be a recovery (whatever that means) and that makes sense from all I've been reading these recent years.  I guess this is the Long Emergency.  The funny thing is that the 'collapse' is very fragmented.  Many people are still going to do well, especially the rich, but slowly more and more families are going to move into challenging times. And greenhouse gas emissions are still going to rise.  I guess that no matter what, learning about food is still a good idea.  And having no debt. 

Last weekend I dropped my dad off at the bus and walked over to a yard sale at a recently shut down gas station (how's that for an image?).  Most of the stuff on display was pretty poor quality.  I found some solidly built baskets from a lady from down the road.  We had a nice chat.  Invariably she wanted to know 'where I was really from'.  Whatever, it only partly bothers me these days.  But most interestingly when I told her I moved here to learn about real things instead of sitting in front of a computer for the rest of my life (yes I recognize the irony right now).  She said pretty boldly that she thinks we're headed for a collapse and that we're going to need to remember how to do things the way they were always done.  But she lamented how much kids just know about cell phones and computers and don't even care to learn these essentials.  

Most times when I talk with people I bump into we never get much beyond the weather or some such surface detail.  But if we dig in, like I did with this lady, I think we all know that the party's over.  I should have pressed her to talk more.  Even the IMF's economists know it.  But it's hard to talk about it publicly.  It seems like a downer.  But it's real and I honestly don't see it as a downer.  But I'm crazy of course. 

Lacking or Not

Sorry it's been a while.  Should have something to say.  Life going on as usual.  Loving the change from summer to fall.  Cool nights and warm days.  Family is great--though sometimes we are frustrated with each other.  Garden is doing really well.  The greenhouse is pumping out tomatoes which I have to get around to canning.  Some interesting ferments on the way: pickled beans, kraut made from kohlrabi. 

Our fridge broke which has been a challenge.  Annoyingly it's only 4 years old which pisses me off.  But it's now been two weeks and more since we've had it.  There's always something else which needs a new part.  I'm at the point where I think we should just forget about a fridge but that's a step too far (for now).  

We've been living out of a cooler and our chest freezer.  We freeze yogurt pots full of water and use them to keep our food cool.  Inside the cooler we have dill pickles (cucumbers), miso, almond milk, mayo (always!), earth balance, butter, fish oil and a few leftovers.  We have given up refrigerating ketchup and tamari and all that.  You know that in the UK it doesn't say 'refrigerate after opening' on ketchup bottles.  

We have stopped making leftovers which is a challenge for me since I like to make big meals and make them stretch over a few days.  Sometimes I freeze things but our freezer is quite full (and disorganized) too.  I know a couple of guys in Halifax who do without a fridge happily and just do the same thing.  They have been doing it for years now.  A bit more organization but way more energy efficient (not that that means the big corp that runs the power here will be burning less coal and that's the whole efficiency problem).  

I read this interesting book called World Made by Hand, imagining a future without the oil economy.  In it the characters had this interesting stone house near a stream which was essentially like a refrigerator.  They even kept a human body in it once before burial.  Makes me think that would be an interesting idea since our brook never freezes and runs cold all year round.  But going out to the brook for butter seems painful.  

Oh such spoiled humans!

Instant Autumn

September has arrived and the temperature is dropping.  It's like clockwork out here.  September is fall.  Even after the warm, dry summer we had, nothing stops the seasons.  I wondered if we might have an extended summer into September because of it.  Even though it's early and that's still possible, it doesn't feel much like summer.  It was six degrees the other night.  Then twenty overnight the next.  So it's still figuring it out.  The potatoes are dying back and the cabbage are forming up nicely.  Even though it's cooler fall is such a great time.  Can't wait for all the fun stuff to come.  Particularly kraut!

More Music

I'm becoming aware that these guys mostly write the same songs but what the heck, I love them.  I'm enjoying an evening of discovering new music.  Now if only I could find a copy of Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies.  Still looking.

Greenhouse Glee

It's so great having a greenhouse.  It was a big production putting it together but most amazingly we did it (emphasis on the we).  I had so much help and am grateful to everyone who helped.  And now from humble seedlings our greenhouse is exploding.  It went from this: 

To this:

We are harvesting peppers, eggplants, chillies, melons and even tobacco (I know it's weird--I had this urge to burn it in a smudge to cleanse people and things because that's how I heard it was used originally). 

And for no other reason than it's beauty, here's our rosemary plant.  Finally I think it's starting to thrive.  Maybe it just needed the right greenhouse.

And just today we harvested our first tomato.  The start of August is common in Ontario but out here you're lucky to have tomatoes by mid-September.  And by then you're throwing sheets on every night to keep the frost off.  So we are very blessed (thanks be to plastic).

And we enjoyed our tomato as part of a very yummy summer supper.  Store tempeh but besides that most of the meal came from our garden I'm proud to say.  Happy summer!

Chickens!

I suppose it's actually been about a month since we welcomed chickens into our lives.  We have four new ladies living the good life.  Two are brown and two are white.  The white ladies were way ahead of the brown ladies in egg production but the brown gals are working on it.  We get two to three eggs a day which is just about right for us.  Though there is much temptation to get more chickens we are pretty happy with our ladies.  

Our friends Tings and Ciaran helped us to build their house.  It's actually called a chicken tractor and moves about the garden like a tractor.  So they munch up all the plants in a bed, poop in the bed and then we move them on to the next patch of whatever.  

They have a little house which contains their food and water and a place for them to roost.  As a bonus the house provides shade for the chickens at the hot times of day.  They have a 4 foot by 8 foot run which I sometimes think is a little cruel but is probably fine for them as long as they can move and check out a new area every few days. 

It's pretty great to produce your own eggs.  I wish I could give you a number on how much it cost us to build.  The house was the biggest expense so far since we really put up a lot of fencing and hardware cloth to keep out unwanted predators.  But apart from that we feed them organic feed and our table scraps and lots of bugs and weeds and we figured it works out to maybe $2 or so a dozen with our feeding schedule.  Perhaps not very efficient but lots of fun.  

Welcome ladies!

House Show

Lots going on and seemingly little time to tell about it.  Working, ahem, selling my labour these days while also trying to grow a big garden.  So quite busy and ragged.  Isn't it funny how we equate working with selling our labour?  I do it all the time and perhaps you do too.  'I was working today' means I went somewhere to get paid dollars for doing something.  But really we are working all the time.  In fact I'm working right now, typing away.  Selling our labour and working are different things.  But we've transformed selling our labour into working and perhaps that means that all other times we should be recreating (interesting way to think of recreation).

So some things to share.  We had a wonderful house concert on Victoria Day.  Jenny Berkel and Demetra contacted me to hold a show here between Halifax and Sydney shows on their east coast tour.  It was lovely to have them and had a beautiful day with lots of wind to keep the bugs away.  It would blow and then die briefly and, then mercifully, blow again.  We had an interesting group turn out, aged 6 months to 76 years young, some folks from L'Arche and a man from Timbuktu.  I think people had a good time and it was nice for the musicians to have a homey break on their tour.

A few days ago the temperature dropped below zero and there was a super heavy frost.  I figured I had nothing to worry about since frost happens around this time of year.  I just moved the figs inside and covered them with buckets.  That was it.  Then I went to sleep.  When I woke up, I didn't even have a look around to see how everything coped.  Selling your labour keeps you busy and keeps you from noticing things.  Maybe it's designed that way.  Anyway just yesterday I worked in the garden and walking back I noticed that all the leaves on all the nut trees were black and shriveled.  Ditto the grapes.  Thankfully on closer inspection I noticed that the hazelnut trees could take such a frost.  But we planted close to 75 or so nut trees around the place.  I just checked a few but they are gone.  I'm hoping that the tree might have some kind of backup plan but I know it's hopeless.  I might take some pictures to share but it's a sad scene.

A few weeks ago I read something about southern Ontario and how the warm spring and then sudden (more seasonal) cold had ruined the apple and pear harvest there.  Actually 80% of the apple harvest is lost.  All the trees were fooled, leafed out and bloomed and then the blossoms were killed when the cold returned.  I must admit I was a little smug feeling that this couldn't happen here.  But it was 30 degrees last week.  And it happened here as well.  

We're all in this together.

Argh, blogger has changed their system.  So annoying.  I was pretty used to the old way.  I expect that this is somehow more sensible but mostly I feel annoyed.  

After a thoughtful conversation this weekend I need to get back to what this blog was supposed to be about.  Things are pretty fucked in the world but we all do small things every day that are amazing and we should acknowledge that.  

We built a greenhouse!

We're probably going to grow tomatoes and melons in there this summer and then I'm going to plant salad mix and kale in there come the end of summer to hopefully harvest over the winter.  We live in hope.

And we had a beach party with our friends on the weekend and I tried a whole lobster for the first time.  Thankfully JJ was there to basically rip it apart for me.  Our friend Ryan is a lobster fisherman and did all the cooking.  The kids loved running around with their pants falling down since they were so soaked.  It was a pretty glorious day. 

Keep celebrating life!

Darkness

Don't really know what to say about this. I can't imagine wishing this on anyone. I guess that's why I'm not the one making the decisions.

Shouting in the Dark

Forgotten revolution. We all need to be in the streets.

Yikes!

Heard about this on the Current. It's a show of the National Geographic Society. The society's motto is "Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888". I'm not sure that this show would apply.





The second video is the most disturbing (to be honest they are both disturbing--especially the guy wanting to maximize hemorrhaging). While I share this woman's concern with peak oil, I'm not sure (if I had a gun) if I would 'bug out' and execute my cat before I left. I can only imagine what the cat would say. The cat would be just fine hunting around Houston. I guess the idea of killing your cat shows an arrogance of the civilized. How could this creature possibly live without me? So I'm going to kill it. Weird shit.

Watch your back everyone.

Boys oh Boys and Body Counts

Last time Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, I figured out the equation of that 'conflict', as the conventional media like to call it. Of course now I can't remember exactly but I think it was 10 to 1. In the bombardment Israel maintained the equation by making sure 10 Palestinians were killed for every one Israeli. The logical conclusion is that one Israeli has the value of 10 Palestinians.

Probably the same equation was used in South Africa under Apartheid. During the conquest of North America is was probably something like 1 civilized person to 100 First Nations or maybe even higher.

Though the body count equation is pretty clear now, we have the benefit of seeing the actual cash value of dead brown folk in Afghanistan. After the recent murder of 16 or 17 people of all ages and genders at the hands of a US soldier the payout per person was $50,000.

--

Man, I heard about this kid Trayvon Martin who was stalked and killed in a gated community in Florida because he was black. He was 16. Check out this Democracy Now! show about him. So sad. The guy who killed him still hasn't even been arrested and charged with anything.



(Incidentally, I wonder if the powers that be don't think we all see this and the hypocrisy. I guess they are testing us to find our breaking points. Still not there!)

Anyway, Obama the other day lamented the death of this young man, saying that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon. On the surface this is a fair comment and I was glad he made it. But then I saw a comment posted after an article where the anonymous person reminded readers that Obama had himself killed brown children like Trayvon. While this statement appeals to a lefty sense of injustice in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is actually one kid Obama did murder and got away with it, much like Trayvon's killer.

The 16 year old American citizen with brown skin (like Trayvon) was murdered by a drone strike in Yemen. On the orders of the President. The US government never presented any evidence to murder a child. The only difference is that Abdulrahman al-Awlaki had a supposedly terrorist father, again no evidence presented that he actually did anything apart from preach against the US. But even if his dad had done something terroristic does that mean that his kid needs to die?

Justice is in short supply all around.

End:Retirement

I had this idea once to make a stencil that said, 'retirement is a warm gun'. I thought it was kind of clever but most people didn't get it. In the end, this may be the only choice that we get.

Now the UK has announced that the state retirement age will rise to 71. That's right, 71. It ties retirement to life expectancy. In Canada we are looking at another rise in the pension age but no one really knows what the Cons will decide. I imagine all other countries are going to follow suit to be 'competitive'.

What these announcements tell me:

1) Governments (and their buddies in big business) want real people, normal people to throw their money into the casino that is the stock markets. Because that has worked so well for our parents and grandparents. If you want to retire before your 70s then you have to jump in with the sharks. Guess who's going to actually profit from this.

2) The party is over. Not that we didn't know this already with the price of oil. But it is most certainly over. We can't afford it after the boomers have sucked up all the money and energy. All we can do is live in hope and toil for the destruction of the planet (what do you think all the money you are going to invest is going toward?).

3) Young people are basically going to have to pay in longer to pay for all the boomers. It's doubtful, if after sitting at a desk for maybe 50 years, people will even be in any kind of shape to retire. Who thinks disability pensions will still be around in even 20 years? Try disability insurance instead and line the pockets of Wall Street!

I have no retirement plans apart from a state pension, OAS and the like that I pay into now and again when I decide to sell my labour. I flatly refuse to invest in the system which is destroying the planet and lining the pockets of the 1%. Now even that 'plan', such as it is, is looking murky. But I take heart in the fact that humans eventually decide to change things. We can tolerate a lot, we can cope with a lot but eventually something has to give. Maybe it's the insulting mansions of the super rich. Perhaps it's some fucker mocking us by saying his wife owns two Cadillacs. Maybe it's knowing that your children are going to suffer in the future. Eventually humans break out the guillotine.

So I have a feeling that in the coming 20 years that one of two things will happen. Either the system collapses entirely in which case our retirement investments will amount to nothing (unless you were one of the rich bastards overseeing the whole thing). Or two, people get fed up and our dear leaders implement a fair and just retirement scheme. I'm not expecting to live in Florida or anything, just something fair.

Or maybe if our kids don't hate us for screwing things up so bad, they'll be our retirement plan.

Greece The Future

Lots of interesting initiatives coming out of Greece right now. It may be yet another destructive neoliberal experiment but it's also an experiment in doing things the right way.

This scheme involves direct selling with a twist. Many of us are part of Community Supported Agriculture agreements where we arrange directly with a farmer to get mixed boxes of food delivered weekly. Great things, check them out if you aren't already participating. You get less expensive food, get to know your farmer and usually it's organic.

In Greece, it seems, greens are a luxury and most people just want potatoes, onions and rice. Cheap and cheerful as I once heard. I guess most people realize that they can eat most of the weeds that grow near their houses.

Two interesting things that stood out.

1) The scheme is being encouraged by the local municipalities and local politicians. I guess these guys and gals haven't sold out yet and, likely, they don't live behind walls in mansions like the rest of the national politicians. In other words they have to look people in the eye and be accountable. All the more reason to focus on the local government as a vehicle for real change.

2) Potatoes sell for nothing. I never sell the potatoes I grow because you can barely make anything off them. Might as well eat them yourself. Next time you're in the grocery check out the price of potatoes. It's so inexpensive I can hardly believe it. Through the scheme in the article, these Greek farmers are getting very little. "The potatoes generally fetch 25-30 cents a kilo at direct sales, 5-10 cents more than cost and far cheaper than the 60-70 cents they typically sell for in supermarkets." But of course all these potatoes couldn't be grown without massive oil inputs. But we all know that one. Eating fossil fuels.

Smell the Bacon

This is a strange video in some ways but imagines how an old story might be covered today. Not so simple eh kids?

The Path

Wow, it's amazing how quickly psychopaths are moving to take over. Everyone knew they were always running the show but I'm quite impressed with how little they think of the huddling masses (that's you and me). Psychopaths generally are involved in governments (usually politicians and high-ups, not so much the guy who pulled the lever on the gas chamber at Auschwitz) and corporations and think tanks. They are in it for themselves and will gladly slit the throat of anyone in their way. They are also happy to cook the planet if it will just buy them an 80 inch flatscreen TV (incidentally I watched TV the other day and learned that they make such monstrosities).

But really the comment that got me hot was this one. This guy is a poster boy psychopath. He claims corporations, who already own politicians, should now be allowed to vote and others, meaning those who 'don't contribute', shouldn't. But the most, I want to say, funny, but admit it's anything but, thing is that in the article he actually claims that this bullshit economy crisis (which facilitates this man's power and influence) was caused by the lower classes. This has 1984 written all over it. War is peace, eh dickhead.

Psychopaths are smart. They know that you might get upset with a quick change. So they tell a good story and start by introducing a concept. Then their employees in the corporate media ask the PM what he thinks and he says 'I'm looking into it'. Then think tanks release reports on how it's a good idea. The media picks it up. A cabinet minister champions it and then in a few years (you'll get there in good time) the PM is on board. Then an election and with 30% of the vote the 'majority' government passes a change to the Elections Act to include corporations (the poor will be excluded after the following election--again don't be hasty).

But what are non-psychopaths (you and me) doing? Checking the NHL trade deadline in my case. Pathetic. Psychopaths don't sleep, they won't stop until they get what they want. Or until you stop them.

Liars

Are not just Egyptian.

Celebrating Supper

Love this supper. I actually promised that we'd have something special for a Saturday night and managed to deliver. Mostly I love that a lot of what we ate we actually grew ourselves. Here's a tally.

Beet salad: our beets, our garlic, our dill (plus local organic apple cider vinegar, sunflower oil from who knows where, salt from France, sumac from the Middle East)--incidentally this is a great recipe from my friend Dan.

Squash: our red kuri squash, our garlic (plus local onions, sunflower oil, salt from France and spices)

Curried lentils: our cabbage--the last one (lots of not local things)

Rice: enough said

Kraut salad: our turnip and radish kraut with regular sauerkraut (sprouted fenugreek seeds--I'm going to try and grow fenugreek this summer though I imagine it needs a lot of heat)

And our pickled beans as well.


Then I also made a dessert crumble with our rhubarb and wild blueberries we picked at a friend's farm. Most of the rest of the ingredients are local. It was a pretty yummy crumble top as my mum would call it.

Pretty nice meal all in all. Makes me wonder what the future holds. I have to get into growing dry beans and some grains like buckwheat and oats clearly. I can't imagine living without cooking oil. I suppose there's always animal fat but then you have to take care of these needy animals. Might as well do without. But salt, there's an essential ingredient. I'm sure there are some salty wild edible plants out there. Still food wouldn't be the same without salt, precious salt.

Onwards.

Useful Short Film

Here is more of same from me. Might be worth a watch if you aren't convinced yet, especially about the potential hydrogen economy. Now, I should get around to building that barn.

New Music

Reminds me a bit of Dr. Who at the start.

Frustration!

I'm so out of sorts I can't believe it. Most people who know me know that I'm pretty stable and organized. But lately I have been so out of whack. I'm knocking things over, spilling things and I'm just losing my head and I'm getting upset with myself. I'm really hoping that it's just a winter thing and that as the days get longer then I'll sort myself out. It's probably the most frustrated I've been in a long time. It's very strange.

It could be a lack of sleep but I think I'm sleeping pretty well. But I may be tensing at night and though I'm sleeping I'm not sleeping as soundly as I was. Certainly my mum's health is probably really bringing me down unconsciously but if I ask myself I feel like I'm resolved with the whole thing.

Then there is the state of the world. Amazing, and certainly troubling, news coming out all the time, seemingly unprecedented. But I'm also mindful that maybe all this news is something I should try and avoid. I'm always reading articles. It can be an obsession and it's not healthy; fine, civilization is destined to collapse, now move on. It's like a car crash, you always stop to gawk but what can you do but make sure that you and your family make it home safely.

So it's midnight and I should go to bed. Wonder what tomorrow will bring? I'm sure of one thing: that I'm going to spill something and curse myself for it. Or maybe not.

Thoughts

Wow, I actually learned something reading the (usually moronic) comments after an article online. Incidentally I think I have a sick fascination reading these comments to see what the idiots of the world 'think'--in fact as I have pointed out before, they may actually be robots or people paid to confuse and obfuscate. But the most important thing is that someone actually had something clever to share. Bless him or her.

So the FBI has released a tender for companies to bid on (here's the actual tender). The goal is to develop a program that can scan all social marketing sites like Facebook and snitch out terrorists and other baddies. If only it was that simple. Since there aren't too many terrorists out there (unless you count some government employees--zing!) how long before they start using this tool to thwart the efforts of climate change activists or occupy people? Maybe they'll use it to keep an eye on those uppity Muslims?

But thanks to dave777 I know that the FBI once had a program pleasantly called Carnivore that already kept tabs on us (well only if you're bad). There was also a secret program at AT&T which also kept tabs on internet users. It's called Room 641A naturally after the room in which it was housed. AT&T was sued over it thanks to a whistleblower. And dave777 found a blog post about how SSL connections (like when you buy something) can actually be cracked. I won't claim to be an expert and I'll just keep my online business minimal. Nothing beats good old fashioned cash!

--

And this from a Greek protester demonstrating that Europe has some pretty big problems. People have long memories:

"I can still remember as a boy how it was during the great famine and great freeze of the winter of 1941," said Panaghiotis Yerogaloyiannis, a former mariner now surviving on a pension of €500 a month.

"We have a different sort of war now, one that's economic, that's not fought on the field. But it's still the same enemy, the Germans. And today you are not even allowed to protest. I carry this around," he said producing a wooden baton from a plastic bag, "to protect myself from the police and thugs who hijack our demonstrations."

Understanding Private Equity

Came across this article explaining what a 'vulture capitalist' is and does. Basically it explains how private equity companies take over businesses and loot/run them. Anyway might be useful in understanding another murky corner of the financial system. Now back to that PhD on derivatives.

Rape in the Military

The saddest thing is that we act like this is not the normal behaviour for an organization whose job is to occupy and dominate other groups.

Slow Times

Had some great conversations at a gathering last night. One reminded me that humans (like other animals) are meant to slow down in winter. So perhaps my inclination toward hibernation and lethargy is actually quite natural and shows a connection to real cycles. Spring, summer and fall are more active times when most animals are making babies and preparing for the cold times to come (with the promise of spring not far off!). It's interesting that our culture has created the opposite system where frenetic work happens in seasons when we should be calm and lounging happens in seasons when we should be working. One might argue that it's a civilized attempt to screw up our connection to natural rhythms, thereby further disconnecting us from the land. But of course it's all a great debate but most of us can't quite shake the desire to cuddle up in front of a warm fire.

Also talked about the difference between 'work' and 'selling out labour'. They are very different to my mind. But to many of us work is synonymous with selling our labour. The only way you can work is to sell your labour. Mowing the lawn isn't real work, growing a garden isn't real work. Cash in hand or rather numbers on a computer screen somewhere, are the true measures of work. But of course there are other ways of working that don't involve selling our labour such as bartering or giving our labour as a gift. Flashback to Marx in high school on this one.

And is it just me or is something in the air. I think somebody has recently become the 100th monkey. I had a conversation with someone I would never have suspected who is really wanting to build a resilient life, learn to grow food, make things, do things, not just sell his labour. They are coming out of the woodwork. Bring it on!

More Voices From Occupy

Bill Moyers on Occupy Wall Street from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

The New Canada

I didn't think it would happen so fast. Have you heard the shit coming out of the mouths of the Prime Minister, his ministers and his underlings? The Dear Leader is standing up for the tar sands, whose good name apparently has been much maligned of late. Now 'radicals' and 'foreign money' are being blamed for the black eye given the tar sands internationally. Seriously, check the links. And the government even warns that they might bring down the Dear Economy, our sacred cow.

It all feels a bit 1930s to me. The outsider is to blame and defiles the purity of our land (and our dirty oil). Bad time to be an activist or to have an opinion that differs from that of the Dear Leader (and his oil buddies).

Here's a letter I just wrote to the Dear Leader, maybe you should too if this seems important (or better still do something that might actually teach him a lesson):

Prime Minister,

I'm very disturbed by your government's recent pronouncements about 'foreign money' and 'radical ideologies' opposing the tar sands. I have read comments from Conservative MPs and Minister Oliver that sent shivers down my spine. Honestly it is a tactic that was used in Nazi Germany, villifying the outsider, the other. It's pretty clear to me that your government is actively working to whip up sentiment against anyone labelled an environmentalist or even people who just want to have their say in a public process. How long before the offices of non-profits are broken into? How long before a nonviolent activist is beaten up? This is undemocratic and will only fuel a cycle of radicalization. You're on a dangerous path Prime Minister. We are going to hold you responsible. Stop the scaremongering and xenophobia right now.

And equally shamefully you are hoping to 'streamline' environmental approvals that always get approved anyway. So we need to speed up public comments and open houses because of foreign radicals. Your buddies in the oil industry are going to write you some big cheques for that one. I bet you are really happy, making a crisis and helping your oil buddies strike it rich. While the rest of us still make the same crappy wage and have to pay more for gas. Canadians aren't blind about your handouts to these corporations.

In the end there is something very wrong with the tar sands. People around the world, those 'foreigners' you speak of with such venom, know this too. We are on the wrong path. I don't expect you to see this dark path since you are blind with power but we can't keep going down this road.

Shame on you Mr. Harper!

Epiphany

This morning I woke up and as usual the boy was awake so I changed his diaper and then we came downstairs together while mum got some more sleep. We played for a bit in his bouncy chair and I kept agitating the coals in the wood stove so that they would burn down and I could take them out. Then I made mum and I a chagga chai that our friend harvested and made and made some oatmeal with dehydrated cherries from our friend Xavier and some sunflower seeds. I noticed (stinky) that the litter box needed emptying and so did our human equivalent upstairs. So that's my next few jobs.

However mundane and repetitive perhaps the truth is that the everyday jobs I do here make me really happy and I just need to embrace that. Maybe my feelings of being stuck aren't so bad. Maybe we don't have to do amazing things all the time like write songs and novels. Maybe we should leave that for the manic people.

Maybe dumping the bucket can bring just as much joy.

Stuck

I think I'm feeling a bit stuck. Perhaps we all are at this time of year. But in theory I have the time to do so many amazing things. And of course I am already doing amazing things. But I guess I'm feeling down that I'm not doing more. I could be writing stories, I have so many stories in the back of my mind. I used to write them on my old blog. I had some pretty good ones I thought. Or I could be building things or making plans for next season. There's going to be a municipal election and I really want to ensure that we have a good show for progressive candidates. I could be writing letters (I still do now and again). I could be doing the dishes. I could fix that pesky dripping tap. Jane and I say we want to walk up the hill every day but dressing up in all our winter gear seems so daunting to me. It's enough to dump the bucket and make great meals.

And then there is the small matter of the insanity of the world. I sometimes feel like I must be crazy because if I'm not then everyone else is crazy (well not everyone). The dominant culture is just so powerful that everyone thinks the same. And maybe I'm scared to talk back. To offer alternatives. So I dither in the margins.