This time of year is not my favorite
season, yes its nice to visit family and catch up with both their
recent activities and their plans for the future but the whole clamor
of what is now largely a retail opportunity leave me less than
enthusiastic. For far too many folks it is an excuse, or is that a
perceived obligation, to spend money they cant really afford on items
that have a good chance of not being used or useful to the recipient
who similarly feel obliged to return the 'favor'. Me cynical and a
grumpy old man? Yep!
That said I do feel 'obliged' to wish
those few folks who read these pages, some of whom even take the time
to comment upon my ramblings, seasonal greetings and wish them a
happiness and contentment in the upcoming year. Just because I do not
embrace those feeling this time of year does not mean I would wish
such on others, if the state of our world locally, nationally and /
or world wide both politically and environmentally bothers you, as it
does me, then I suggest you do NOT read on for this is not going to
be an uplifting creed.
It may make for bleak reading, but of
the 162 countries covered by the Institute
for Economics and Peace’s (IEP’s) latest study,
just 11
were not involved in conflict of one kind or
another. Then there are countries which are involved in no actual
foreign wars involving deaths whatsoever - like North Korea &
China – but which are fraught by the most divisive and entrenched
internal conflicts. The number of authoritarian regimes that
suppress their own citizens or the ethnic minorities who they
consider interlopers is also considerable whether included in the
above or not. The few that do not fall within those parameters are
far from trouble free, much of Europe is in disarray between fending
off Russian aggression and trying to agree to disagree with
neighboring countries not the least of which is GB where the whole
Brexit thing can only be described as the largest Cluster Fk since
Cromwell's days.
North America is not immune to the
political induced madness that is spreading across the globe much of
it caused by individuals who seem to think they are democratic
leaders but are in fact the exact opposite or quickly heading that
way. Whilst the current U.S. 'leader' is perhaps the best example of
such thinking where due process is just something to be ignored or
circumvented and any opposition is demeaned or suppressed it is far
from the only one who thinks that way. Which brings us to our own
impending CF here in Ontario where the newly elected premier is
cutting a swath though the checks and balances previously thought to
be unassailable starting with the members of Toronto's council and a
number of other 'cuts' seeming made with little or no input from the
folks that citizens chose to represent them, flawed though that
process may have been.
Across the country it looks no better
as what appears to be an increasing division between those who do not
believe in climate change or simply put the almighty dollar ahead of
the ever increasing destruction of out atmosphere and life as we know
it. We will not change thing overnight and the use of oil to power
our economy will not substantially reduce in the short term but it
should be clear by now that increasing its use is simply not on. I
will leave it to others more eloquent on the subject to detail the
dangers but polluting large areas by taking tar from the ground,
adding more pollutants to it to send through aging pipelines to then
ship it out of country where after processing and creating more
pollutants much of it will be sold back to us make zero sense to me.
That our current federal leader, whom
we thought was somewhat moving away from the excesses of the previous
regime, seems to have been blinded by the rhetoric coming out of one
particular province and bought said aging pipeline (for many mega
dollars when the owners who had made their millions whined that they
were pulling out) is 'disappointing'. To add insult to injury we now
learn that further millions are being given to the diggers of tar
because no one want to buy the crap and actually 'digging' it up and
flogging it to distant suckers is no longer financially viable. In
short between the world wide political situation, the idiot in charge
next door to us and our own ever increasing divisions both
politically and environmentally we are screwed.
Merry bloody Christmas eh.
IF I can find the fortitude (and that
is highly debatable at this point) I will return sometime in the new
year to cobble together what will no doubt be a long list of the
questionable actions undertaken by the Ford Regime in the short time
since they came to power.
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