2022 – From Local Chaos to Global Crisis

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Skid

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We were hoping it would get better.In Ontario, We seemed to be turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic and things were about to get back to “normal” this year. Then came the temper-tantrum truckers who terrorized Ottawa for three weeks because they couldn’t handle the mask or the needle. We had Conservative members of Parliament cheering them on from the bridges of Ottawa. We had to bring in the Emergencies Act to get them out of town because the local police felt helpless to stop the honking diesel fume spewing trucks, and the harassment of local citizens.

They blocked borders, disrupted trade and commerce, sickened a city and forced our democratically elected government to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time in history. Some of the terrorists got arrested but the rest of them all just went home. The border crossing mask mandate they were protesting still held, and it looks like the legitimate government they were trying to overthrow is sitting pretty until 2025.

The estimated cost to the City of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, for the so-called “Freedom” Convoy’s selfish stupidity is an estimated $36 million and counting. We thought that we had it bad.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine and all of our troubles faded in comparison. President Vladimir Putin claimed he was defending Russia’s borders. The UN knew otherwise and condemned his actions. The Kremlin was angry that international leaders were calling Putin a “war criminal” but what do you call a man who shells maternity hospitals and cluster bombs residential neighbourhoods? The UN called it a humanitarian crisis as four million people fled Ukraine with more than half of those refugees entering neighbouring Poland. More than 10 million people, a quarter of the population, have been forced to leave their homes and belongings. NATO leaders talked about help but refused to call for a “no fly” zone over Ukraine. So much for diplomacy.

Meanwhile, as I write this, Ukraine continues to be pulverized by the Russian war machine. What’s stopping NATO? The very real fear that Putin may retaliate with nuclear weapons leading to a cataclysmic World War Three. While we delay, Ukraine is paying the price for our cowardly failure to admit them to the European Union and NATO. We have colleagues at the Kyiv Osokorky Elementary School currently under siege and begging for European and western assistance. Sometimes there is only one way to stop a bully.

Meanwhile in Ontario, the “Scientific and Chamber of Commerce Advisory Panel” has lifted the mask mandate and begun to Open Ontario for Business once again. Boss Ford faces a provincial election in June, Asphalt Annie wants to run for Mayor of Caledon in our October municipal election, and the weather, after a brief fling with spring, is turning back to cold and snow again. The least of our worries.

2022 is going to be a very interesting year. The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

The Coldest Night of the Year

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Skid

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Last night, January 11, 2022, the temperature in Caledon dropped to -21 degrees Celsius and -25 if you factor in the wind chill. At these temperatures the unsheltered human body goes through a sequence from frost nip to frostbite to hypothermia. We begin to shiver uncontrollably to keep our body warm. Within one hour the heart stops pumping blood to our extremities concentrating the life giving warmth around our vital organs. By the end of three hours, the brain shuts down, the heart stops beating and we freeze to death. Last night Environment Canada issued an Extreme Cold Weather Alert for all of Canada except BC, They are getting hit with more rain, and flooding, and mudslides. The new normal.

Imagine being homeless in these conditions.

The Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) walk was conceived to raise funds to address the issues of homelessness and hunger and prevent the kinds of tragedies that come with extreme weather conditions. Water, Food, and Shelter are basic needs of all peoples and are the first to be lost to the disadvantaged in our society. CNOY began in 2011 and, to quote from their website history, was “launched in two locations supported by three charitable partners, including Ann Barnard Ball at Yonge Street Mission, Greg Paul at Sanctuary Ministries in Toronto, and Harry Whyte and Scott Brush at Ray of Hope Community Centre in Kitchener/Waterloo.” They placed their trust in the Blue Sea Foundation to manage the event, and that trust was not misplaced.

CNOY has grown every year since 2011, bringing communities together in awareness and action for the benefit of our most disadvantaged. In a country as wealthy as Canada and in a province that is “For the People” the the only obstacles to providing shelters and affordable housing are lack of political will, corporate greed, and public apathy.

The first CNOY walk in the Town of Caledon began in 2020, organized through Caledon Community Services. Families came together on a cold February night to make a 5 km walk through the streets and trails of Caledon East. At the end of the walk we all met in the Caledon East Community Centre for a celebratory bowl of warm soup and to give thanks to the CCS volunteers. It was the true meaning of community.

Since then the global pandemic has not made things any easier for the most vulnerable among us. In 2021 the CNOY walk went online unless you could take your small masked, appropriately spaced group on a local outdoor trail. That will be the same situation this year on February 26, 2022 when the Caledon community takes a walk on the Coldest Night of the Year.

If you can, please support the CNOY project wherever you are – it’ll do your heart good. The way I see it.

To find out more go to the Blue Sea Foundation and to make a donation to CNOY ’22 go to <cnoy.org>

“””

Skid Crease, Caledon

*image from cnoy.org

100 Seconds to MIdnight

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Skid

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In 1945, Albert Einstein and fellow scientists at the University of Chicago created the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The cover of the first Bulletin published in 1947 featured a design by graphic artist Martyl Langsdorf and the Doomsday Clock was born. In 1947 the Clock was set to seven minutes before midnight.

One year ago, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published this warning:

“To: Leaders and citizens of the world

Re: This is your COVID wake-up call: It is 100 seconds to midnight

Date: January 27, 2021

Humanity continues to suffer as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world. In 2020 alone, this novel disease killed 1.7 million people and sickened at least 70 million more. The pandemic revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly. In this time of genuine crisis, governments too often abdicated responsibility, ignored scientific advice, did not cooperate or communicate effectively, and consequently failed to protect the health and welfare of their citizens.”

The nuclear powers of the world bear responsibility for their stupidity in continuing to develop weapons of mass destruction. At present this includes the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. Consider the dangers of nuclear war both on Earth and a few hundred miles above Earth’s surface in our Thermosphere and Exosphere as “developed” nations continue to rattle sabres. Throw in the consumptive greed of industrialized countries as corporate arrogance finances climate change denial. Combine that with the entitled selfishness displayed by the wealthiest nations towards the neediest nations during this recent global pandemic, and it is easy to see why the Doomsday clock has symbolically ticked five minutes closer to midnight in one short decade.

I have written recently about the dangers of ignoring the warning signs. Just like Cinderella at the ball, we are being warned that the party is over when the clock strikes midnight. In 1991, the Doomsday Clock was previously set back 17 minutes to midnight after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

If we are going to reset the clock back for the upcoming decade, then It is time for some significant local and global New Year’s resolutions and long overdue neglected actions, The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

Ignoring the Warnings, Part 2

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Skid

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Omicron, the new Covid-19 variant virus known as B,1.1.529 has arrived just as predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Another clear case of politicians and populations ignoring the warnings of science.

On November 26, 2021 as reported in Al Jazerra English, Oksana Pyzik, a teaching fellow at University College London’s School of Pharmacy, said the new variant “shouldn’t come as a surprise” amid warnings from the WHO that global vaccine inequity could lead to the emergence of new strains of the virus.

“The World Health Organization has been warning us repeatedly … since the beginning of the pandemic that if vaccine inequity continue[s] … that inevitably will lead towards a more fit virus, a potentially vaccine-resistant virus,” Pyzik told Al Jazeera from Geneva.

“So, if we look across the entire African continent, there’s less than 3.5 percent uptake of vaccines at the moment and that has been due to a supply issue,” she added.

And that is due to the wealthiest countries in the world failing to deliver the goods. From Canada’s COVAX hold-back to Israel’s rush to give third booster shots to their entire population (except for Palestinians) vaccine inequity remains one of the biggest problems in getting this global pandemic under control. Politics and science.

Normally the new variant would have been given the next letter in the Greek alphabet as the Xi variant. Political correctness intervened since Xi JInping is the President of China and it is not a good idea to irritate a country that operates with absolute power, hostage diplomacy, and such little regard for human rights. So the WHO picked Omicron.

Omicron, unfortunately, also happens to be the name of a Canadian development, design, and construction company in British Colombia. That could make it the first casualty in Canada of the new variant. The two Michaels, Spavor and Kovrig, know just how you feel.

The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

Ignoring the Warning Signs

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Skid

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The iceberg is melting….

A wife tells her husband to watch his diet, his drinking, his fitness, his stress levels. He puts it down to nagging, A year later, he has a heart attack. The stray dog your child finds in the park has her ears laid back, neck hairs bristling, lips curled up in a snarl, low growl rumbling in her throat. The child reaches out to pat her and the child gets bitten.

The local politician who is supported by powerful developers shows a pattern of missing any votes in Council critical of those developers’ plans. Later on the same politician sabotages the community by reducing their ability to defend against aggressive development bids on their greenspaces by neighbouring cities.

The World Meteorological Organization releases a statement in 1988 that warns: ““Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment, whose ultimate consequences could be second only to global nuclear war.” In 1993, only five years later, 1670 scientists belonging to the Union of Concerned Scientists publish their “Warning to Humanity” where they propose five areas of immediate need to be addressed “if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”

We ignored the warnings. Individual and corporate greed, complicit politicians, and an apathetic consumer society ensured that we would. One would think that with warnings like that we could avoid the heart attack, the dog bite, the slimy politician, the climate catastrophe. One would hope that the history of Easter Island and the demise of their civilization would resonate with 21st century humanity. Or will we discover too late that Earth, our home planet, is humanity’s Easter Island?