Social Commentary

by Cadence

To earn respect from others, one must first show respect. To show respect to someone, you first have to learn it. Knowing the essence of respect, knowing its many aspects, paths and facets, and knowing how to practise respect-giving will solicit so full a response in the person to whom you are extending it, a response triggered so deep in that human soul, that it shatters all we think we know, and change occurs in both the person receiving and the person giving.

This change is caused by the interchange, the dialog and trading of ideas, the sharing of feelings, the contract written by our handshake, a nod, or a smile of agreement or acceptance.

This change will forever and always be for the good. Its role is that of a carrier, the connection, close as it can be, between two humans. It is what we most need. It is energy vital to our souls. Food! It nourishes us and fills us. It is what becomes us, this human interaction, communication, this meeting of minds. And if, in very special moments, there also is a meeting of hearts, that is a rare gift.

 For such high achievement, a person must be equally a communicator and a listener, to learn and know the essence of interchange between two persons. What does it mean truly to hear someone? For so, in deep listening and sharing, understanding is achieved. Friendship and bonding occurs and there respect is found, waiting patiently.

Our individual choices and action anchor our process of transition into our desired new realities. Each act of love, each loving response, will mold and move this energy into the highest potential for every living thing near us.  

Right now, we can individually accept personal responsibility for the way we walk upon this planet. Changing the patterns of our interactions with others begins with recognizing that we are all responsible for the current energies as well as for transition into new social connectivity and true respect between souls.

by Claudia Medina

There is a rising tension inside you. The kind that twists into your belly and constricts the muscles. A general state of weariness, a sad pulling in your heart. It could be the daily stress of working hard to pay the bills, the rising cost of living, the sense of overwhelm you feel when you turn on the computer, the TV, the radio. The images and words of intensifying crises, bombarding you. Intensifying the worry you feel for the future. The sense of despair over what’s been lost. The feeling of uncertainty as to where we are headed. The cell phone keeps ringing; the email box is stuffed full of virtual messages you seem never to keep up with. There is advertising everywhere you turn. You feel inadequate, too fat, too thin, too…something. Not enough of anything.

You decide to step away from it all. You are lucky—there is a forest nearby. You turn the phone off, and start walking through a trail lit by streams of sunlight.

The ocean breathes a soothing, rhythmical beat as you move. At first you just walk, your mind still ringing with the stressful cacophony of the day. Gradually though, the sounds of birds calling to each other, a raven laughing, an eagle making an announcement, a stream flowing gently, all of these start to break through the mental noise. Your muscles relax slowly, and your step becomes lighter. You notice the soft, warm wind caressing you; instinctively you breathe deeply. It feels good. So good that you do it again, more intentionally, slowly. You start to see what’s around you. Magnificent old trees standing guard. A squirrel darting past, the intense green of swordferns swaying, delicate flowers trembling, and the beckoning red of a salmonberry. You taste it, savor the earthy sweetness. Your senses are coming back to life, absorbing the sights and sounds, the tastes and smells of the mossy, moist, living space around you.

by Laura Kew

Almost 65 years ago, the first atomic bomb dropped. On August 6, 1945, the world changed forever when the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put the world on notice that the nuclear age had dawned. From the moment the first pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were published, the people of the world began to organise to demand that these weapons never be used again. Today, the choices between war and peace, health and security, even the survival or demise of humankind on earth, are as stark as ever.

Dr. Sylvia Keet, a member of Physicans for Global Survival who encouraged our mayor to become a member of Mayors for Peace, organised the first Powell River Citizens’ Peace Panel, part of the national organization Citizens for Peace. Dr. Keet also organised the first Peace Lantern Ceremony here, a tradition which continues. Now retired to Vancouver Island, she will return as guest speaker at the Annual Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembrance Commemoration and Peace Lantern Ceremony to be held Friday, August 6th, 2010. An ancient tradition, the Lantern Ceremony now commemorates those who died in the world’s first two nuclear attacks, expressing hope that nuclear weapons will never be used again. Each lantern symbolises a personal commitment to create peace in this world and hope for the future. Participants can create a lantern, and send it out on the water at dusk.

by Ellie Langford Parks

Do you want to change the world? If so, you are not the only one. There are 23,000 non profit organizations in BC, with 1.5 million people volunteering.  They raise awareness and dollars for worthy causes: AIDS/HIV, environment degradation, climate change, health, peace, homelessness, local food and many more. If you are working to make the world a better place, here are a few things to consider.

Don’t be intimidated by the ‘experts’
You likely aren’t an expert, but you can read and understand the experts. Use critical analysis to judge for yourself. Experts are sometimes wrong or biased. Do research, know the facts, know the players, know the laws, know the issue. Knowledge is power.

Consider the level of impact
Impacts can be made at the personal, organisational, community, national or even global level. We can change our personal choices: what we eat, where we shop or bank, where we travel, and what method of transportation we use. Changes in lifestyle choices and in government and corporate policies are important. Shifts are needed at all levels to effect change. By joining groups, coalitions and movements, we increase our visibility and impact.

Keep on learning
A commitment to ongoing learning is essential. There are many ways of learning: from experience, from others, online, from books and videos, and in training workshops and degree programs. Analyse your skills and then go fill the gaps.

Plan trigger events
It is a myth that Rosa Parks decided spontaneously she was not going to give up her seat on the bus. In fact, she and many others in the civil–rights movement had trained at the Highlander School.  The movement was planning and waiting for the right moment to mobilise support for the bus boycott. Decide what trigger could help your cause get noticed, plan for it, and be prepared when it occurs.

Create clear, measureable goals

Lyla Smith

There is an exploited producer at the bottom of every cup of conventional coffee. That’s the message of the Guatemalan Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA).

On Nov. 19 about 120 people were treated to a moving film at the Ecole Cote du Soleil, about Guatemalan Mayan peasants working co-operatively toward agrarian independance.

After the film, committee president Leocadio Juracan Salome (pictured) explained the clear necessity for farm workers to work collectively to empower them all. The subtitle of the program, ‘For Food Security, Land Reform is Needed’ speaks directly to Guatemalan farm workers. In that country 2% of the population owns 75% of the arable land. Working on large farms, often trekking hours to and from the fields, wages typically are not high enough to cover the cost of living. For members of CCDA things are entirely different.

Ratio of land ownership in Guatemala may seem very extreme and third world. But recent BC data shows the wealthiest 10% own 54.6% of this province’s wealth. Or, seen from another angle, BC’s top 50% control 95.7% of wealth, leaving just 4.3% for the rest of us. The other half. Globally the richest 2% own half of the world’s wealth. Rather than shrinking, these gaps are growing in the developed world.

While many Canadians are clearly better off than average Guatemalans, our farmers also face huge negative legislative impacts that threaten small farms and local production.

Maybe we can all learn from each other and work together.

by Ken Thompson

Everyone loves a good deal, yet few consider that many low-priced consumables are mass-produced through exploitation of children in developing countries. Child labour both causes and perpetuates poverty. It is directly supported by multinational corporations actively seeking markets where wages are low, unions are outlawed, and desperate people will work for almost any price.

In North America, out of sight equates to out of mind, but ignorance is not bliss…at least not for the millions of victimized children slaving to supply our insatiable appetite for cheap products. Sweatshops are located in India, Indonesia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Africa, and China--to name just a few.

According to the United Nations International Labour Organization, over 200 million child laborers around the world fall between the ages of 10 and 14.

Twenty-five per cent of Africa’s children are burdened with long work hours for extremely low wages. It is estimated that 15,000 children are trafficked–sold, or lured by promises of good wages and easy work on one of 600,000 cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Once there, resistance is futile. Escape attempts are met with swift punishment–torture.

Seven per cent of all children in Latin America between 5 and 14 are child laborers. At least 26% of an estimated 18 million children are forced to toil at harvesting coffee beans, working with toxic, explosive chemicals and pesticides, or operating dangerous machinery. Hidden away in unsafe workshops, small children produce fireworks and other explosives; some die; others are injured.

Behind barbed wire and locked metal gates, 18% of all children in Asia labor to produce merchandise. In Kanchipuram, Southern India 1 in 5 children are working factory looms 12 hours a day 7 days a week, with 1 day off per month. Modern-day slaves in the 21st Century; their recompense is a mere 30 US cents per day.

by Kevin E. Abrams

The legal fiction we call a corporation was defined as a legal “person” by the US Supreme Court in 1886. As a “person”, a corporation is deemed to have rights similar to rights of a human being or free will man or woman.

In the book Fleshing Out Skull & Bones, the authors ask, if a Corporation is a “person” owned by the shareholders, are the shareholders engaging in slavery? And, if the Corporation is indeed a “person”, does it have an innate and unique capacity for moral and ethical action of independent volition? Do legal fictions defined as “persons” have any inherent capacity for moral conscience?

Like the straw man of the Wizard of Oz, all corporate fictions are mindless. Lacking any life of their own, they “innately” serve only themselves. Neither do corporate “personas” possess an innate capacity to respond to moral concerns. Thus, when a community or government becomes corporatised, the interface through which goods and services were provided and government policies were enacted shifts from an interface of local merchants and representatives interacting with the people to corporate fictions interfacing with “customers” and so-called voters.

Does any free-will man or woman have a real vote in any provincial or federal election today? In effect, one acts on behalf of the legal voter, the straw man in the corporatised fiction. In this domain, there exists no true capacity for a response to the moral and ethical conscience of the people, because the voter is actually “owned” by the fiction.

by Guy Hawkins

I recently got back from my ride on Friday September 28 with Betty Krawczyk who was released from prison just days before - having served more than six months for civil disobedience. WOW I had an incredible experience of personal soverneity riding in the Critical Mass bike ride. Imagine 1500 cyclists - some in costume - some riding ridiculus ‘two story’ bikes, all participating in an act of civil disobedience with Betty Krawczyk . We were all charged by Betty’s presence - a 79 year old grandmother had taken back her personalsovernty by no longer recognizing the authority of a court of law. It was all hooting and hollering for the entire two hour ride through the streets and over the bridges of Vancouver. We stopped all traffic at will by simply getting off our bikes in front of stopped vehicles so they could not move. We blocked intesections of all the main streets as well as ‘closing’ the bridges to vehicle traffic in one direction untill all riders had passed. Five or six uniformed police officers cycled behind us as ‘sweepers’ to reopen the intersections as we vacated them. One of the funist parts were the reactions of people who were being inconvienced by our civil disobedience. We forced vehicles to stop for up to five minutes as 1500 cyclists rode by. Many drivers were honking and giving the high five as well as the pedestrians who had to wait the five minutes also.
People were really happy to share in our display of personal sovernity. Many called out and waved from the sidewalks and came out from shops as we passed. We thanked the drivers and pedestrians for their good humour and we thanked the ‘knockers’ for stopping the traffic so we could ride through. It was the coolist thing ever!

by Eva van Loon

Not enough people have read this 18-year-old book, which leads us down the jungle path to find out why things are the way they are. Ishmael re-landscapes the mind. Said Jim Britell of Whole Earth Review: “From now on I will divide the books I have read into two categories -- the ones I read before Ishmael and those read after.”

In 1989 Ishmael won Ted Turner’s prize, for fiction about solutions to global problems, by exploring the biggest challenge in history: how to save the world from ourselves. Over the years the book has developed iconic status, studied in schools as well as in the New Tribalism movement it spawned.

Ishmael opens with an ad: “Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world.” The narrator is startled to find his teacher is a silverback gorilla, Ishmael, who grew up alongside humans, uniquely placed to deliver lateral insights into history.

Ishmael’s paradigm of human history differs from any in schools: the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago marked the time when some humans conceived the idea of locking up the food, thus forcing others to work, war, or wheedle for their share.

The ultimate expressions of that doctrine of locking up the food are now upon us. Our government, for example, forbids us to sell the food we ourselves grow except under its tight control and, sometimes, to impossible legal standards. And agribusiness has invented terminator seeds, the idea being to force farmers to buy seed each season under the guise of quality control. Such control over food supply swiftly turns Earth into a prison planet. Science and the rule of law become the work of the devil instead of the tools of enlightenment they were meant to be.

by Don Mallet

The little country of Bhutan, nestled between India and China, is the world’s only “democratic monarchy”. This experiment, originated by the current king Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972, means that if the “Gross National Happiness” with the king drops below 50%, the Bhutanese will vote and elect a new king. There has not been a vote yet.

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS (GNH), also originating in Bhutan, is an attempt to gauge the success of the nation on its intangible and holistic quality of life, rather than on its productivity as measured by its Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product. It is based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance. This is often discussed in tandem with the Genuine Progress Indicator of the green movement.

The “happiness” factor could be used to gauge such things as citizen reaction to growth, development, and social issues such as crime, immigration, emergency measures and epidemics, and could even offer a new mechanism to evaluate physical and mental health care. If one goes to a hospital or a care home, one’s happiness will influence one’s recovery and general health. The population could decide that “alternate” medicine is less costly, and/or as effective, and therefore makes the user more “happy” within such a system.

Some critics of GNH point to expulsion of the “illegal Nepalese immigrants” as an example of how GNH can be misused. Although this expulsion reduced Bhutan’s wealth by most traditional measures such as GDP, the Bhutan government claims it has not reduced Bhutan’s GNH.