July 8, 2017 – Words From A Paper Cup Reprise

“Words From A Paper Cup” was a series which I worked on with my co-creator and dear friend, Alexandra and the time is right for a reprise.  I am sitting here on Saturday, July 8, 2017 pondering the current state of my place on our planet.  When we added the last piece here, the prospect of having Donald Trump as the US President would have seemed like an impossible joke and joke it truly is.  However, things have been amiss, going back long before the USA even existed.

Last night, I watched a tremendous presentation by the author of “The Creature From Jekyll Island” ; G. Edward Griffin, it was like watching a thriller, although the subject may seem dry; the planning and execution of The Federal Reserve System.  Previously the same day we watched the second part of a documentary from Noam Chomsky on the decline of the USA.  Basically, we have never gotten away from the domination of the many by the few; that goes back thousand of years, in fact the main players in the formation of The Federal Reserve System, had family roots going way back in Europe.

We are currently facing two forces which will shatter the current systems we have and both are the result of the folly of some human beings.  The first is Climate Change, the second is the collapse of the world financial systems.  This has been said many times so it is not news, not many though have proposed changes to help us deal with these things, I shall try here from my own experience.

• Whatever monetary investments you may have, are in grave danger, be they property, currency, metals, jewels etc.  When the changes hit the most important things will be air, water and food.  Therefore liquidate your assets now, whilst you still can.  Please be sure to research “bail-ins” which are far worse than bail-outs.  In essence no money in any bank account is safe.
• In whichever ways you are able, invest those liquidated assets into that which will best assist you with the provision of air, water and food.  Make that your primary focus, going forward.  (For the past 6 years I have invested any disposable income into just those things).
• Move to a vegetarian diet (vegan if you can), eat less and get fit.  All of these things will improve your health which will be key when the changes hit.  The “healthcare” systems, already under great stress are likely to disappear, more or less.
• Research and practice all forms of food preservation, canning, fermenting, pickling, dehydrating and freezing.  Those not requiring ongoing electrical supplies are the most reliable ones to use.
• If you are allowed to; keep chickens, ducks or geese.  Chickens in particular make wonderful companions and of course all of the  female of the species give us eggs.

These are my recommendations based on personal experience and reading/researching; speaking of which there are two books which I strongly recommend you obtain and read.  Lean Logic by David Fleming and The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook by Albert Bates.

And last of all, keep in mind what we are facing is change and change is sorely needed.  I am optimistic about and relish with happiness the better days beyond.

Mike’s Keystone XL Vigil Protest

C

Click the image above to join us at our Keystone XL Vigil Protest in El Segundo at Mike’s house. Bring as many people as you like – children and babies are always welcome!

 

Fukushima, 2014 – Part 2

Tags

Fukushima

Let’s turn our attention to Reactor Number 3, which is emitting steam. It is so radioactive that no one can go near it, but they believe that the core of the reactor melted down into the core of the building and so on and so forth. We shouldn’t forget how much radioactive water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean every single day as well – 3-400 tonnes a day. I’m currently in England visiting family, but I reside in Los Angeles, California. The currents from Fukushima carry everything and anything over to the West Coast of the United States and Canada…

We all hope for the best, for obvious reasons like the goodness of humanity, and there is little to no factual information on the steam issuing from Reactor 3, so just to sum this all up, we had the natural disasters of the earthquake and the tsunami, and then the damage that occurred at the nuclear plant and now we have a situation where Reactor Number 4 is having the spent fuel rods being removed and steam is being emitted from Number 3. “Well it’s cold over there right now so it’s like someone’s breath in cold weather” some have said. I wish I could believe that, but there has been so much cover up including the people working in there, the Japanese Mafia, the government etc. It is an underhanded mess, and it is not something that anyone on Earth has the right to keep or lie about. This is a world issue, and at best could result in years upon years of possible cancers and severe issues to thousands if not millions of people.

We live in a carcinogenic world already. Despite Richard Nixon declaring war on cancer back in the 70’s, today all of us either know someone who has gone through cancer (or not) or have experienced it or had a scare ourselves. It is no longer odd for cancer to be a part of our lives. A lot of the carcinogenic events and substances are quietly swept under the carpet, but Fukushima is a high-profile issue because it’s so severe in so many ways. No doubt, sadly, the consequences caused by Fukushima will go on for generations.

Though this may seem dooms-dayish, it is not meant to be. It is what I would call a very accurate estimation on my part erring on the optimistic side in fact. Unfortunately there are many conspiracy theories around that can be confusing, but a good way to find more accurate information is to look at various sources, look at who is telling you the information (who they are, who they work for, past work etc.), possible agendas, what else is on the website etc, you’ll get a feel for reliable news. This is how I find my sources and would recommend others to as well, most definitely over watching one or two mainstream channels and leaving it at that. Thank you.

Fukushima, 2014 – Part 1

Tags

Fukushima

And here we are. It’s 5 am on the 3rd of January and I’m over in England at my daughter Michelle’s house. Late last night I had a prompt from Alexandra to start a piece on Fukushima. It’s now approaching 3 years since the problems there, which began with a large earthquake over 9 on the Richter scale, which was followed by a devastating tsunami. There were loads of vehicles and houses just washed away in a horrendous body of water that enveloped whole villages, as anyone who saw the footage may remember. Following this was a riveting account in a publication I read, by a sailor who single-handedly sails the Pacific Ocean every few years who recounted how much debris he encountered in the ocean from that tsunami. A lot of it was radioactive to some extent because of Fukushima obviously.

There’s a lot of conspiracy theory type stuff going around, and I’ve tried to be careful in my research about Fukushima over these months, but one thing I do know for certain is that there were overt cover-ups by both TEPCO (who are the operators of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan) and the Japanese government. I think the most vile thing about the whole situation is that the Japanese government vied for and succeeded in getting the next Olympic games in Tokyo, which is an absolute travesty, as there is no way that there should be any Olympic games in Tokyo simply because of one particular fact: the clean up of Fukushima is going to take years. Part of that is underway now with removing what are termed spent fuel rods from Reactor Number 4, and as a small aside Co-Opera has made music expressing energy in reflecting this process in our typical style.

From the mainstream media there is virtually no factual news. There was an interesting situation where the BBC and CNN were allowed in a few months ago to report on what they saw and it was very much an embedded effort. The reporters were shown around, not allowed to go other than where they were specifically guided. I remember the report from the BBC reporter saying that they were allowed to go to Reactor Number 4, but as they went past Reactors Number 1 and 3 with a Geiger counter, the readings there were off the scale before they got anywhere near them.

We still haven’t seen the full ramifications of the BP oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and I bring that in now because with that and Fukushima, the reporting has been very much controlled, and that is not conspiracy – it is obvious to most of us. Our capabilities for containing catastrophes of this sort are non-existent. There can’t be any heavy duty reporting since reporters are not allowed in unfettered. The catastrophes that could unfold, we don’t have the capability as individuals or societies to deal with. So we just hope that they don’t. I think the biggest clear and present-day danger is another large earthquake, and that in itself is enough to do untold damage, and of course if there was another tsunami, well, as stated before, we don’t want to think about that.

(To be continued)

The Miseducation of Humanity

Tags

miseducation, Nuclear power

So here we are. It’s December 18, 2013. I’m about to go back to the UK for the first time in a little while which might shift my blogging schedule a bit.

I’m currently in the throes of a permaculture training course that is very important to me with my great friend and collaborator Alexandra. Permaculture as I see it, is going to be the one current system that will take us into the future in a meaningful way. Many indiginous tribes know that it is important to take fully into consideration the following seven generations (to put into numbers, roughly 400 years) when creating their lifestyle. In 400 years from now, our society will no longer be able to run on fossil fuels, no matter what.It’s becoming more evident as well that nuclear energy is not going to take us very far except into more oblivion. Its interesting to note as well that nuclear power has not been a source of energy until 1954, and if we think that some of the spent fuels (spent not meaning they are not doing anything when they actually last for hundreds of thousands of years), we don’t have any idea as to how dangerous and damaging it can be to all life forms. We can see it playing out in Fukushima, Japan where there are many problems that are not being dealt with because no one knows how to deal with them.

In the latest permaculture lecture that I listened to,the lecturer said that most eco-villages have failed. I got to thinking about that, and I thought, ‘I’ll bet that ego was at the root of that’ – this business of having to have some sort of superiority over other things. It’s taking a lot of life forms on Earth into very dangerous territory. I’ve had ego, and still have it. I thought “Why do I have that – why is it such a natural thing to me?” I thought about education, and I had the benefit of going through an education system. What I believe is that our education system is failing us quite significantly, and not just the 25th ranking education of the US,  but overall western education.

If you think about what school is, and we sort of take this in to life, the first thing is that it is all about doing what someone is telling you to do (the teacher). All 20 to 30 students must all do the same basic things, though they are all very different. All throughout my life and to this day, when people protest something that is not good, in peaceful ways, often there will by security forces that try and stop them, sometimes very violently. I can’t believe that in their hearts these security men can’t see that peaceful protesters are standing up for good things, and that their own families could benefit as well. The mindset of people like this, as well as those who do worse to other human beings comes from a group mindset that is instilled right there in the classroom.

The second thing that is taught in the modern educational system is competition. We’re taught that competition is a healthy thing, but it’s about making someone stand out among the rest, who feel inferior to this person, and that is not correct. These two things are the root of the causes of what ail us today. How we are living now will bear no resemblance to how the seventh generation from now will be living, and I don’t know what will happen, but we won’t have fossil fuels which literally fuel society today. Everyone is hoping that technology will help us get past this dilemma, but the real answer is all around us. We just need to live with nature, not exploit it unmercifully. We are not powerful enough to change how the world works – that’s all there is to it. We need to understand as a race of people and elect leaders who understand this as well. The current leaders are power-driven and money hungry., They’re not going to change – WE have to change. We need to stop educating children to come into an industrial world, which it is less and less of now, and teach them to live with nature and with love in their hearts, because we all need it, just as we need air water and food. What we don’t need is cars, fashion and any other life-draining substances. We simply don’t need those things.

Realigning our education system to honor the unique attributes of children, teaching them how to work with nature and correcting the problems we’ve been creating for hundreds, if not thousands of years are what we now need to do.

The Nature of Nature

So here I am on the 11th of November at a friends’ house in Colorado. It’s 7:47 in the morning, and I have a young lady with me, my friend Jeff’s dog, whining softly as I conduct this piece.

What I wanted to talk about today is an absolutely awful typhoon that has happened in the Phillipines, possibly the worst ever recorded. At the moment people are still estimating the death poll, but at the moment it’s estimated at 10,000.  So, most of us growing up in the West and increasingly the East are educated that we as humans are a superior form of life on Earth, and that everything else is either beneath or beholden to us. Anything else that doesn’t have life that’s tremendously observable such as mountains, dirt, trees, wind, rain etc. are some sort of deeply studied analyzed set of things. I tend to believe that nature is a form of life. Have you seen the photos of the Earth from space? I suggest you do if you haven’t – it’s eye-opening to see the Earth as a whole, alone in space, and to think about those who are destroying it. Let’s say that nature itself is a form of life? What if it is concerned? Let’s remember a saying that is often said at funerals – “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” We come from the Earth, and we go back to it, much like everything else in our system – the bears, fish, insects, dust, plants etc. What isn’t infinite are the items that we are depending on to drive our societies (fossil fuels, nuclear fuels and so on).

We have tremendous destruction going on now in the North American continent with fracking, tar sands extraction and destruction of the Arboreal Forests in Canada. I think if I was nature, I was be at least dismayed, possibly angry. Everything around me is alive and I am a part of everything, therefore I don’t want to destroy anything because I don’t want to destroy me, obviously. So if we imagined that nature was like a human being, and it got annoyed. Any of us could realize that we’re not doing the right things. The point is, if nature was an entitiy, she could well be very annoyed.

We see the escalation of events, the tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, Hurricane Sandy, the typhoon in the Phillipines, and they appear to be getting worse.  Let’s speculate, if nature had a persona, she would be angry and wanting to do something to stop us. Maybe these escalating weather events, which are obviously related to human-induced climate change, as also nature’s way of telling us enough is enough. This is just a thought point of course, but we do seem to think of the nature that surrounds us as something that is abstract, but it nature is not an inanimate object by any means of course, and we have to change our thinking about it.

Thanksgiving is coming up here in the US, and many people will be eating Turkey. I’ll certainly be doing something for Thanksgiving but I can tell you that I surely won’t be eating a Turkey. It’ll relate to something that’s been done to the Earth and the people who have lived here largely by the Anglo-Saxons that came here. There are two events that we should change or get rid of altogether. One of those is Columbus Day which celebrates the Europeans coming to America which was a travesty, and the second was Thanksgiving, because the Native Americans have nothing to thank us about, that’s for certain even though they helped the Europeans out as I will convey in the Thanksgiving piece I will be doing. We paid them back by wiping them out basically, and then taking the remaining people off of the land that they loved, used and revered unlike most of the future generations that would take over.

On Patriotism

Tags

Patriotism, Veterans Day

It’s 6:36am on the 6^th of November and I’m in El Segundo, California. What I’d like to talk about today is Patriotism. I would have used the play on words of calling it “The Patriot Facts,” but a lot of this won’t be factual, but my own opinion ON the facts.

Anyhow, my good friend Alexandra and I went to a local city hall meeting to get an idea of the politics of the place and the ethos of the people running the city. One thing that I noticed was that at the beginning of the proceedings, was that they did the Pledge of Allegiance and mention God, not God’s (I don’t have a religious affiliation, but I think that one God related to one particular religion is exclusionary). I think it quite arrogant to assume there is only one god, but that’s not the main point of this piece, though it is related because religion as it exists in this world is a method of grouping people together and excluding others, largely speaking. Some religions are more inclusive and broad minded, such as Buddhism, but alas let’s get back to the point.

 Patriotism typically revolves around colors of some kind and a flag. The other night, another proceeding that took place was that a man stood to speak dressed up in an American Independence uniform, from when the colonies defeated the British. He was talking about some sort of flag ceremony. My thought was, why is it that so many white people have this incredibly racist attitude to people of other colors? The patriotism that was given to the British flag is what caused them to tramp off around the world taking them to countries that they had no right to take over and make a part of the British Empire, which is the largest empire that has ever been. Some may argue that America is an empire, but it’s not in the same sense of simply going and taking over other peoples’ countries. There’s another aspect to the US domination of the world which is very militaristic. That whole issue of being able to get people to do things that are inhuman to other humans and living beings and the environment often goes around in the same mindset of people worshipping a piece of material made of different colors.  It makes no sense. It’s absolutely a diabolical thing to hurt and kill other living beings in the inspiration of a piece of fabric made of different colors. This went around in my mind as this man talked very proudly about how the US colonies defeated the British, adoring the flag and this that and the other. We would be far better off if there was no patriotism.  I always imagine John Lennon’s song “Imagine” where he talks about not having any countries or religions. He was right about those things.

One particular thing I would like to mention is that happened when the Europeans came to the American continent, though many people think of them as being more sophisticated, civilized and cleaner, but most of that is not correct. The Europeans were significantly dirtier that the Native North and South Americans, and the societies here were fairly sophisticated themselves. They rarely worshipped one ‘god’and they tended to be more considerate of their surroundings.. One thing that stuck in my mind more than anything else, is that 90-95% of the native population here were wiped out by disease, NOT by some sophisticated fighting machine from Europe. They found the Europeans rather dirty and uncivilized. It’s unlike what we were and still are told in school, that the Europeans defeated the Native Americans by fighting, but instead they defeated them by bring diseases here, from a filthier place (Europe).

The filth of Europe at the time contributed to the crush of the very worthy, widespread Native American population. The chap the other night who was celebrating the American continent, but  the birth of this nation was from total and utter darkness and unfairness. That is where there is so much darkness here – it was created FROM it.  Unless we can get a culture emerging from lightness (lightness and darkness in ethos are very real). The extermination of 90-95% of the population here got followed very quickly by slavery. In order to make the United States a decent place to live, we have to somehow or other get away from that darkness, and patriotism is not in any way a positive mechanism whatsoever to do so with.

Where Are All the Water Babies?

Tags

Deepwater Horizon, New Zealand Drilling, Oil

This piece is about the Gulf of Mexico and the status of that after the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, as well as the drilling about to happen off the shores of New Zealand. The drilling will be twice the depth of drilling to date anywhere else in New Zealand.

I got in a discussion on Facebook yesterday about the drilling happening there and someone commented that it was already happening; that drilling was taking place all around New Zealand and that it was safe and so on. We shouldn’t be drilling in deep oceans in any case. This is a mute point however, because we cannot continue to burn fossil fuels. We’re already passed 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there are extreme weather events happening on an increasing basis and we have to get away from using fossil fuels. Beyond that, they’re finite. Even if they lasted 500 years; even that is a blip in history.

I read an article by a sailor from Newcastle, England, who sailed the Pacific Ocean, and it is mind blowing what he saw on his journey, reflecting the difference of what he saw now as to what he saw on previous journeys. What he found was a totally different place. “I’ve done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks, and big flurries of feeding birds but this time, for 3 thousand nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.” That to me is really tragic. I have a great faith in nature, and I hope that once we are prevented from what we’re doing now, however this may be, that life will return and the ecosystem will put itself right, but we as a species have done so much damage.

I do know the Earth can put itself right once we stop, but this article stopped me in my tracks. I will fight very hard against the drilling off the coast of New Zealand. We have to take a stand against the continued harming of the Earth. We’re much more informed than we’ve ever been and we have to do it for our families and their peers. All of the work that Alexandra and I are doing is for the good of our loved ones on Earth. What is becoming evident is that the damage in the Gulf of Mexico was far worse than was reported. The amount of oil leaked was at least 10 times more than originally reported and I remember reading a lot of things around it like cracks in the ocean floor that appeared about the time of the blowout. The actual depth of the Earth’s crust is far, far less under the oceans than that on land – it can be as little as 3 miles and here we are drilling down 1 to 1 and a half miles. We’re not helping matters with earthquakes either by drilling in the thinner parts of the Earth’s crust.

I am totally opposed to deep sea drilling wordwide, let alone in New Zealand. I haven’t done much abut my opposition to date, but I will be. New Zealand is that last frontier on Earth that hasn’t been tremendously spoiled, and the government there now are intent on extracting all the money they can from the minerals that are there. We should not be starting oil wells anywhere. We have to stop doing what we’re doing. If governments and corporations don’t stop out of morality and reason, than we have to make them stop by informing one another constantly and acting against them. We have to put up a barrage of truthful information that will expose them for what they are, and how they are ruining the Earth and future for our children. I have spoken about them before, still do, and will continue to do so with increased action and awareness, consistently.

Anglo-Saxon Agony

Tags

Britain, countries in the world, fossil fuels, New Zealand

We are discovering a lot of things that are not very heartening these days, but some thoughts came to me that I thought may help.

It came to me as I was awakening this morning that there are 5 countries in the world that are driving the agonies that the Earth is going through at the moment. Obviously, they’re not the only countries, but there is a thread of similarities between them.  Those countries are The United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and sadly, New Zealand. I say sadly New Zealand because of all of them New Zealand is very unique, being sparsely populated at just over 4 million people, and has the same level of services and civilization as the rest, and has been shielded up to now really of the excesses of the rest in the area of fossil fuels: either the exploitation of their own localities which is in some ways just if that’s the right word, because its at least doing it on their own land not taking from others and spoiling others’ land.

These 5 countries whom are also known as the 5 Eyes Alliance, are deeply collaborating in security agencies such as the NSA, GCHB and GCHQ and so on. There’s a certain pattern emerging, one of darkness (a term I feel that aptly describes things that aren’t particularly pleasant for living beings or the Earth). Of all the countries in the world, these 5 countries are damaging the earth by way of fossil fuel seeking and usage. I for one am not going to sit back and let the continued damage of the Earth happen. These countries all have administrations that are actively involved in causing tremendous damage to the Earth. There’s a really good video from Wendell Berry, whom I was introduced to by Alexandra Bwye. He wrote a book called The Unsettling of America, which is a very good read and worthwhile for all human beings to read. He talks about getting people back to the land rather than the current desecration of it by machines.

The 5 countries are involved in tremendously destructive fossil fuel projects in one way or another; there is the exploitation of tar sands in Canada, possibly the worst of all, fracking in the USA which is running amok, John Key trying to open up the seas in New Zealand for deep sea drilling, Australia mining on a scale far beyond all of the other countries, possibly all put together, and they’re all very right-wing. I hate to use this kind of terminology but it is what is recognized.

If we’re going to concentrate our efforts as a world in a united front to the destruction that is going on, we should be putting the pressure on the governments of these 5 countries because they are without a doubt the most destructive of all countries in the world. The thread between them is that they’re all of Anglo-Saxon derivation. To be more precise, the majority of their people’s have come from Great Britain. The Great is going to become seen as nonsensical, because there is nothing Great about Britain and never has been, and unless they change their ways of living with one another, other countries and the Earth, there never will be.

We Be Illin’ (Too Much…)

Good morning, afternoon and evening to you.  I know the title of this blog is a little bit silly, but I hope you will humor my humor here 🙂

The community Facebook group for Waiheke Island where I was living for over a year is the most active group page I have ever come across, considering there are only about 8,000 people living there. All I can say is that it’s a very unique place.  It’s off of the coast of Auckland, and is profound in many ways, one of which is politically speaking for the number of people.

I got in a discussion that relates to the current local board elections which are going on there, and I am paying attention to now as I lived there for awhile and will be back there soon. The local board has had quite a profound effect on what has been happening to the island, which is why I like to stay on top of the happenings there.

The discussion was regarding EMF’s, or electromagnetic frequencies of cell phones, Wi-Fi and so on. This particular discussion was that one of the candidates said the Wi-Fi should be eliminated in schools due to the effects of EMF’s on children. I have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and so I have reason to want the best for children the newer generations other than my compassion for humans in general.

The thing about EMF’s is the effects are imperceptible and unpredictable. There have been many consequences attributed to the effects by way or various kinds of testing, and one of those is the production of cancer. Cancer has been with us for a number of years. and I don’t see it decreasing in any great numbers any time soon. Very rarely is there a specific cause that can be pointed at. Sometimes it is attributed to genetics, sometimes environmental/dietary factors, and sometimes emotional toxicity. My contention is that cancer is insidious and often has outside forces. EMF certainly plays a large part in cancer.

In the Facebook discussion there were some saying that there was nothing wrong with Wi-Fi, that in any case we can’t do anything about it since cell phones need Wi-Fi and that classes need to be connected and so on but to be honest those comments are irrelevant to me, and I’m in the technology business. I’ve certainly moved to use as little of my cell phone as I can, and moved more to a wired situation that wireless, because to go back to the point, we have built a society that is based on the acceptance of the existence of illnesses, and that the way to deal with that is to have various kinds of treatment like pharmaceuticals, vaccines and so on and so forth.

Here’s the thing – the greatest mechanism that we have to combat illness is our own body and I know that myself. I speak what I live and I live what I speak. I have my deviations like having a glass of wine and a glass of beer. I try to keep those in moderation and that’s a mute point some might say – you shouldn’t drink at all, and I don’t disagree with them, but I do accept responsibility for my deviations.

None of needs to be utterly and totally perfect, because largely speaking that’s an impossible life considering the system we are in. I can’t remember the last time I had fast food or anything like a hamburger. If I have a pizza, I’d rather make my own so I know what’s in it. My point here is that we can do much more to look after our own bodies, what we put into them and onto them.  My good friend Alexandra said to me once “We shouldn’t put anything onto our body that we wouldn’t eat,” and this is a great point because our skin is porous – it absorbs what we put onto it.

I did give up eating meat, not only for my own health which is definitely benefiting from it, but for the health of animals and also the effect on the environment. Eating meat is much more destructive to the environment than abstaining from doing so.

I’ve gone off on quite a few tangents here, but I would like to make the point that we can do more individually and in groups to look after our health. It’s NOT normal to be ill. I’ve met many people in this world who feel that it is normal, but it’s not the case. We do have the ability to make ourselves healthy and happy by addressing WHAT is making us ill, whether it is our own dietary or emotional habits, or the environment around us.